Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Premium Pricing

One of the first questions that I had when the Spitzer news came out yesterday was how any prostitute could command $5500 an hour. My wife was wondering the same thing when we discussed the matter last night: what are you getting for that price that's so much better?

Obviously, it's a step up from the soiled dove you pick up on the street corner, but what's the difference between $500 an hour, $1000 an hour, and $5500 an hour whores?
Discretion? Appearance? Certain "skills"? Or are you just paying a ridiculous luxury premium that's doesn't correlate to the actual service provided?

Seems like a subject that one of them dismal scientist guys would want to explore further.

UPDATE: My favorite headline on l'affaire de Spitzer so far is....

Spitzer scandal seen as setback for climate change reforms

That's a shame.

UPDATE II: Steve from Grand Forks--a man apparently wise in the ways of high-end call girls (although in Grand Forks "high-end" usually means "she has most of her teeth")--e-mails to clarify:

I thought I would let you in on the secrets of what makes a hooker worth $5,500 an hour, you naive, unlettered man not of the world.

It has, in Willie Nelson's words, something to do with the chrome on a trailer hitch.

Actually, of course, as Charlie Sheen famously said, quoting better men than he: "We don't pay 'em for the sex, we pay 'em to go away afterward." And men of wealth and taste, of course, have millions more reasons why they need them to go away with only a bang, not a whimper.

Or as one of my colleagues, a former sports goon, said quickly, as he does everything: "Hey, wonder if she would pro-rate that down to a minute and a half?"

Didja see Letterman last night? "Do you think it's too early to hit on Mrs. Spitzer?"

PS: Our own Gov. John Hoeven, you know, immediately released a statement, "I've never paid for it in my life!"

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