Sex Slaves - Part Two

Recently I had some feedback about the original blog I wrote on Sex Slaves. The writer fed back and said “I don't believe that poverty drives the sex industry.”

Now the aim of this second post is to explain how I came to that conclusion, not to disagree with someone publicly, we are all entitled to have a contrary opinion; but on rereading the post I felt that perhaps I was  a little remiss and unclear in what I was trying to communicate. I am not going to answer every comment on my blog but as I hold the commenter in high esteem I will, on this occasion, respond.

So does poverty drive the sex industry?

The market economy relies on several principles in order to be successful. One of those principles is that markets are driven by demand. So a market will not be a good investment if there is no demand for the item / service being sold.

Principle One - Markets
I believe that there are three types of market demand;

Opportunistic markets
Optional markets
Essential markets

Opportunistic markets exist where a person sells an item or service in order to profit from short or long circumstances that may have appeared in the market place. A marketer may find out that hundreds of Scottish tourists are coming to their town and may change to their labeling to include tartan patterns in order to sell extra wares to those tourists. Or a person may perceive an opportunity exists because the seller does not know the true value of their wares, and so the buyer buys the wares for resale or for themselves based on the opportunity that is presented to them.

Optional markets exist where people can buy an item or service which is non essential to their existence, tourists do this all the time buying  pencils and pens with flags and logos on them to remember a trip, or place.

Essential markets are things we cannot do without.  These may include things like groceries and telecommunications. Here multiple sellers try to win bigger market shares by emphasizing why their essential product is the best available.

Prostitution can viewed as either one of these markets. One man may see a prostitute on the street and use the opportunity to use her services.

Another man may be rejected by his wife and go to the prostitute as a second option. (In some cultures it is acceptable for the man to go to a prostitute if his wife says no to sex.)

Other men would see the sex trade as an essential service that feeds their selfish lust for sexual gratification. Indeed in parts of Thailand some 15 year old boys are taken to a prostitute as a rite of passage so that they don’t enter manhood as virgins. This view would see prostitution as an essential service.

The sex trade makes sure that there is an abundant supply of women to meet all types of services needed.

Principle Two - Returns
A second principle of the market economy is that the best place to invest your money is in places where there is low risk and high return. 

Sex slavery provides such an opportunity particularly if the women are cheap to obtain, and are not paid for their services. By employing poor men to make sure that the women are trafficked “safely” over borders costs are kept to a minimum. A businessman with no morals could easily invest in the sex trade because the returns are so high and the overheads low.

Principle Three – Maximize Profits
A third principle is to purchase your basic components / commodities as cheaply as you can so you can maximize profits. I feel sick referring to women as components or commodities but for the sake I example I will. (Please forgive me ladies.) Women are cheaper to source from poor villages than from the affluent cites of the west.

Another principle is this (although I am not sure if I can attribute it to the market economy); desperate people are more likely to take risks. Whether it is risks with money, as in the gambling addict who is trying to win back the money they have lost on the pokies, the person who is coming off one bad relationship and is entering into another risky relationship because they are desperate for affirmation and love, or the young girl who although she may know that there is a risk of sex trafficking, she will believe the stranger that promises her a high paying factory job in another country because she is desperate to help her family which is in poverty.

With sex trafficking we see all three of these circumstances come into play. We see markets established. It does not matter if is rich tourists, or local village men, or whether it is viewed as an opportunity, an option or essential service, the market is there.

The proliferation of the availability of cheap labor (prostitutes) caused by sex slavery makes it easy for this market to expand at a rapid rate and for more men to say yes to it.

We also see that the business investors are willing to invest in the sex slavery and reap the return and we see that there is a large population of available women who can be duped and tricked into this industry.

Take away the presence of the cheap components (the women) and your market is in crisis, take away the cheap labor that trafficks the women and your costs will rise and profit will be reduced. So we can safely say that poverty is a major force in what drives this industry? Yes we can, but for the sake of my commenter I will change the original blog to say that.