Dear Readers,

It is always interesting to thumb through the back of the Weeklies to see what is being advertised.  IMHO, the weeklies tend to be filled with bait-and-switches, throne jobs, dance-and-dances, or just generally less reputable providers and agencies.  However, while I would never recommend using the weeklies to find talent (unless desperate, risk-seeking, or looking to TOFTT), I do find it interesting to note what prices these providers and agencies are asking.  I find that this can be a barometer for the market, or at least give some idea of trends.

It is interesting to note that as the market has suffered a downturn, what with the dot-bombs, weak tech sector, and now the spectre of terrorism and national defense issues, the prices in the weeklies have begun to come in at $100/hr in some cases. Others quickly seem to match prices.  Also, more 1/2 hour sessions are being offered.

Now again, most often the prices in the weeklies have nothing hatsoever to do with what will actually be asked for when the woman arrives in person, but it is interesting to see what is being advertised upfront. Only a year ago when the economy was rolling, these same ads, with the same  providers/agencies/scams etc. were asking $200-250/hr, following the lead of online escorts.

While online escorts seem to be maintaining $200-$300/hr, I've also seen more specials and incentives recently.  It will be interesting to see how elastic the market is, and how much (if any) prices will come down as a result of the economy.

Along these lines, I have been having a little debate with a fellow hobbyist in private about this issue of elasticity.  His basic argument is that prices will come down much further, possibly even to the $100-150/hr level, due to the scarcity of jobs and more women turning to "the life", creating more competition, price pressure etc. On the demand side, nervous hobbyists will be less likely to spend money, may restrict their hobby budgets etc.  Again, same result, substantially lower prices.

I am more optimistic, while I think prices may come down a bit, I feel that for the quality escorts at least, $200/hr is a price point at which few will go substantially lower.  I feel that while middle management and corporate america may suffer job cuts, it seems that there are still plenty of service sector jobs (retail, food service) that providers (or would-be providers) could move into, if they aren't getting a decent wage for providing.  

The LE, STD, bad client risks and emotional toll of providing is high enough, I feel that quality providers would move to a "day job" if they weren't getting sufficient business at $200/hr or above.  I argue that if prices did come down to $100-150, it really wouldn't be for the same class of provider.  From the demand side, I tend to argue that hobbying is less elastic, more of a necessity (habit? ), and not just a luxury, so the demand won't decrease that much in times of economic uncertainty.

Any thoughts? Were any of you active as hobbyists (or providers) through other economic downturns? (i.e. The oil crisis of the 70's or the recession of the late 80's early 90's?) I'm not sure that price information was as readily available then, but any anecdotal thoughts on how past recessions affected supply/demand/prices for providers?  

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I generally go along with your views, a quality provider with esablished clientle is very much unlikely to lower the real, not nominal price than the newcomers.  Since you used the term, elasiticity, I assume you have taken your econ101, generally, in a recession, the nominal price of the goods go down, so any provider who doesn't lower the price accordingly in a medium to long run, is in fact, raising the real price, which is, absolutely no-no, if she wants to keep the optimal capacity.(unless she wants to take a long vacation). So I say , it depends on your definition of the price, the real or nominal?  In real terms, she is unlikely, but in nominal terms, she'll lower the price to accomodate the lowering nominal index.  Of course, it also depends on other factors that I am sure you are familiar with.

Way back in the early to mid-eighties prices in LA were $150.00-$160.00.FS/BB (in the pre HIV days)Now "same" service is $250.00-$350.00, considerably "cheaper" than it was 20 years ago. By the way, that was through Escort Services that advertised in the Yellow Pages. I don't remember ever being ripped off back then.