welfare & sex work

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

At 02:05 PM 6/1/98 -0400, Doug Henwood wrote:
>Everytime I type the phrase sex work I think of David Polonoff, who used to
>be a writer (he wrote the great neocon seder for the Village Voice, "next
>year in Managua!"). When he heard someone at a rally use the phrase
>"culture workers," he said, "Culture workers? I got into culture so I
>didn't have to work." He's now a computer programmer.
>
>Anyway, prostitute/writer Tracy Quan says that the talk among hookers is
>that welfare reform has increased the number of sex workers, but of course
>no one can prove it. A libertarian, she says the only good thing she's
>heard about welfare is that it keeps the labor supply down.

The supply factor, even if true, has probably very uneven effect beacause
of labour market fragmentation.  I sincerely doubt that the former welfare
recipients could get into the higher segments of the sex market, so over
there the impact of the welfare reform in terms of prices or increased
competition was probably nil.  

On the low end, the prices were already depressed (thanks to cocaine
addiction) that they could hardly get any lower.  I've heard stories of
$2-$5 per trick in Baltimore _before_ the welfare reform.  So the main
impact, if any, seems to be increased competition.  Any indication of that?

Regards,

WS