The Oldest Profession

I read somewhere that there are sites on the internet where men review the women they have hired for sex. I have never seen such a site, but it does support the idea that prostitution is the world's oldest profession. In every major city, and no doubt many small ones, men know where to go to fill their biological need for release.

At the behest of churches, government makes some noise about stopping this. But often government is in on it, especially the very police who are being paid to stop it.

I am just now getting to my issues of the NY Times Magazine, and the August 21st issue has a page on the "flickering red light" in Istanbul. "Since the 1870's, prostitution has thrived in Istanbul's Beyoglu district...for five decades a (woman) ran an empire of Beyoglu brothels that netted her her an estimated $4 million annually until her death in 2001."

So just one woman in one town made such big money. Worldwide billions are spent on paid sex. Even the preachers and the politicians who oppose it still buy it, especially if they are conservative Christian or right-wing GOP!

The woman who died after making such a fortune left the properties to her son, who closed them. This cost the city an estimated $1.2 million in tax revenue. (Yes, she paid taxes on her income!)

Now the government has "essentially stopped granting sex licenses...even though there are an estimated 7000 applications pending. An estimated 100,000 women work in the Turkish sex industry illegally. One older woman, 45, complains about her younger colleagues: "Nowadays these women have all lost their morals," she said. "There's no more service, no more caring for the customers." Yet she still makes up to $6000 a month, I guess by providing the old-fashioned services. The younger women see as many as 50 men in a 12 hour day.

At this rate, prostitution will continue to be quite profitable, and we haven't even talked about the male prostitutes.

It's an interesting piece to read: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/magazine/dimming-the-red-lights-in-turkey.html?scp=1&sq=Flickering%20Red%20Light&st=cse