OldQDog wrote:
... It seems to me that the point of this thread is to discuss whether the economy has impacted price points at the HDR. Those that interjected their regard for the people delivering the services we seek opened the door for everything else. Want to reduce this to an economic debate. Cooollll!!
Being the good capitalist means buy low/sell high. So you want to buy low. Then get the price you want from whoever will sell at that price. But to pretend that statements like the above are not self serving is simply disengenuous. Which is a great capilalistic strategy if one can pull it off. I learned a long time ago, in capitalist school, that if someone can control the sellers price point then they are on their way to gaining an economic advantage in the marketplace. So being a good capitalist we also want to be able to judge what is in the seller's best interest. What is reasonable in their eyes. And in thier lives. Gaining control of the marketplace by any means possible is simply being a good capitalist.
At their best put downs, objectification and derogatory labels have been effective strategies to control the price points of sellers for decades. Not to mention win elections and control any other manner of resources. At their worst - being the good social psychologist I am, I won't even go there. This approach, I imagine, probably works with for some, and with come chicas at the HDR - some have told me some great gringo stories. But the approach does not work with all - therefore the tone of some in this thread.
Some of us are saying "what goes around comes around" What I am saying is that this brand of capitalism, controlling the marketplace through presuming to know and trying to control what is in the best interest of the seller is nothing more than privilidge shrouded in the same dogma that is alienating us from the rest of the world. Make no mistake some saw Bernie Madoff coming. And those standing outside his crib were not singing cumbaya.
So, I'm heading out in two weeks for my quartely pu*sy pilgrimage. What are chicas negotiating at the HDR? Any advice about my humanity can be checked at the door. I think by now everybody knows where I am coming from:-)
OldQDog
First of all, I haven't really seen many posters interjecting "opinions, labels and their regard for the people delivering the services we seek" unless you're talking about the inflammatory trolling post made by this nutcase DexterRICH, which came totally out of left field and for which he got himself permanently banned from this board. For the most part, this HAS been an economic debate all along.
Secondly, you may disagree with my economic reasoning if you want but to say that I'm being disengenuous and simply pretending that statements like the above are not self serving is completely and absolutely WRONG. I didn't invent the laws of supply and demand or the concept of price elasticity of demand. It doesn't take any economic genius to figure out that when the world economies are in recession that there will be more sellers and fewer buyers and that in turn NORMALLY means downward pressure on prices (witness the housing market and until recently the price of gas) or at least less upward pressure. Similarly, as you move up the demand curve, elasticity of demand normally increases. What that means is that the higher the price goes, as some have continued to do, the larger the effect on the quantity demanded and their total revenue will go down. This may be "self-serving" because it means lower prices for me as the consumer but I didn't just make this stuff up to gain "economic control".
Thirdly, "judging what is in the seller's best interest" is not at all a direct concern of the buyer. Convincing a seller that what is really in your own best interest is also in theirs CAN be a negotiating approach that some might take, but we're NOT talking to chicas here. We're talking to each other. So who are we really trying to convince and what would even really be the point unless we believed it really was in their best interest as well as ours? I wouldn't so readily ascribe nefarious motives to our judgments, which a) we truly believe and b) right or wrong are at least based on reasonable principles and assumptions.
Can we judge what is really in their best interest? Maybe not. We can only judge what would seem to be the most reasonable approach if we were in their shoes. Of course, some of us probably have some advantage over these chicas in understanding the best approach for
profit maximation based upon our own education and business experience. I don't have access to their exact sales figures but I can at least figure out that if they're complaining about low sales volume then raising prices is probably NOT the best answer. Of course, maybe I'm way off base and profit maximization is NOT their primary goal. Maybe they'd rather hang out at the BM night after night holding out for the big score (rather than sell themselves "too low") and can content themselves doing a much smaller handful of sessions each month. But if that's the case it still doesn't explain chicas complaining about low sales volume while maintaining high prices.
Maybe the chicas are just unhappy because things are not as wonderful as they recently were. In that case, join the club. I wish I was making the sort of income I was last year too and if I was I might not be so reluctant to pay the prices some of these chicas are asking. The point is, no one is happy when the economies turn bad, we all like to complain, but some of us learn to adjust and some don't.
Maybe the chicas really DO know what they're doing and raising their prices IS in their self-interest because it raises their total INCOME even while their business VOLUME (# of sessions) decreases. In fact, even if their total income goes down, having to turn fewer tricks might still be preferrable to them, as long as they still made a satisfactory income. The question then becomes, if raising prices really is so good and effective for them, then why do we hear them complain so much about business being slow? I can think of only 2 explanations. Either their business really is suffering and therefore there is something to what we've been saying OR the chicas really know what they're doing and the complaints are being made up to manipulate us. The "psychological manipulation conspiracy" that you postulated between buyers and sellers can work both ways.