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Seeking Arrangement: College Students Using 'Sugar Daddies' To Pay Off Loan Debt
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A month prior, faced with about $15,000 in unpaid tuition and overdue bills, Taylor and her roommate typed "tuition," "debt," and "money for school" into Google. A website called SeekingArrangement.com popped up. Intrigued by the promise of what the site billed as a "college tuition sugar daddy," Taylor created a "sugar baby" profile and eventually connected with the man from Greenwich. ("Taylor" is the pseudonym she uses with men she meets online. Neither she nor any of the other women interviewed for this article permitted their real names be used.)
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Outside the U.S., a handful of scholars in the United Kingdom recently examined shifting patterns of sexual behavior among college students tied to rising amounts of debt. Ronald Roberts and Teela Sanders, two social science professors in the U.K., contend that a combination of rising tuition, increased debt, a culture of mass consumption and low-wage work are luring students to the sex industry in greater and greater numbers. They fear that as college costs continue to rise, more students will pursue sex work.
Roberts asked 315 college students at a university in London about their participation in sex work. The findings were stark. Nearly 17 percent said they would be willing to participate in the sex trade in order to pay for their education, while 11 percent indicated a willingness to work directly as escorts. A decade ago, only 3 percent answered in the affirmative. Today's respondents are far more likely to have peers who are working in the industry.
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Jeez, and here I thought this was capitalism at work? Is prostitution when it comes to sex the only prostitution? Or could we define prostitution as giving in to any power? Prostitution is legal in Nevada and considered the world's oldest occupation by many people. So I guess my question is, if you consider prostitution a bad thing, how would you prevent it or work to make it less bad? Or are you just moralizing online because that is what you do best? Requires nothing from the critic, that makes all thought easy.
Is this prostitution?
That is the truth. And, it is a very sad truth. I suspect that we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg in the ramifications of these policies.If they're [Taylor et al] seeking sponsorship/source of debt relief under the direct inference that they'll be expected to return the 'favours' with sexual gratification, penetrable or otherwise, then yes, they're whoring themselves. Though in the UK this is nothing new. In my opinion is a sad consequence of the last government literally insisting that everyone leaving school should go on to study at university, even though it's patently obvious that not everyone is suited to higher, academic learning. That's not snobbery, that's reality.
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They're pressured into going to university because the government's insisted that they'll enjoy a more prosperous future, and that manual work is to be looked down on. But they aren't suited to it, so incurr massive debts as a consequence of entering into something that they aren't suited to, but had no alternative because Labour insisted that everyone should go to university. I've employed five men over the last four years who've recounted tales of their children going to university after being promised the world by the various prospectuses they've had shoved under their noses after completing their A-Levels (some not even achieving the grades usually stipulated to gain admission, but exeptions were made across the board to encourage everyone to get a degree, even though the evidence underscored that they weren't suited to it), and have dropped-out after such a time has passed that despite all the pressure, they've come to the final decision that they're not suited to either the nature of the work, or environment, or both. But by that time they're loaded with debt, and have to find some way of repaying it. I'm not talking about student fees because they're only made repayable once your income has been assessed and it's decided that you can begin repayment. No, I'm talking about repaying all the peripheral financial assistance offered to young men and women who are packed-off to university. That's what makes people resort to desperate measures to make the monthly repayments. These repayments are often so big that even their parents are left unable to help their over-burdened children.
Somewhat agree. But, along those same lines and Blagger alluded to it, the looser policies for admissions combined with the universities desire to make high 'ratings' by (such as Princeton and US News and World Reports) have forced universities to lower the quality of the education they provide, at least for a BS/BA. I suspect it won't be long until it corrupts the graduate programs, as well, if it hasn't already.If college had some connection to real life and provided one with a guaranteed great job it might be worth the debt. As it stand now they are an outdated mode of training people to work.
i worked my waty through college, and kept my loans low. The high interest rates is the main killer on loans. When I got my first loan of 400 dollars in 1980 it was at a 2% interest rate(avereage bank rate then was 30%), my last loan of 2k in 1997 was at 10%(bank interests at 5%). Why do we not give the kids breaks and stop charging so much interest on the loans?
