November 2, 2007
The economics of sugar daddying
Over at Freakonomics, Melissa Lafsky quotes a Craigslist post:
You with the long flowing hair, the mountainous, bust, the nipped in waist and the sculpted legs! You’re friggin incredible..
And they expect you do what! To work? At a job? YOU? That just ain’t right.
Here’s where I come in. Ya see, I’m an investment banker downtown.
Now don’t get your hopes up, hot stuff. I’ll be honest with you. Unlike you, I’m not much in the looks department. So I can’t give you that. In fact, I’m a troll. Think Danny De Vito with a nicer suit.
What I do have is an apartment nearby that I’m not using. And a buncha cash I’m not using. And a poker’s hand worth of platinum and gold credit cards I’m not using either. Maybe you’d like to use them instead of going to some boring, friggin’ office.
Now he has our attention. And all he wants is?
In order to qualify for this arrangement, I’ll need to see several clear photos of you, both face and body.
Aha.
Ms Lafsky offers a number of reasons why this is not a good deal. They are all excellent, but they all assume the offer is legitimate. He might not even be an investment banker. On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.
Woof.
Posted by: Luke G | November 2nd, 2007 at 8:10 pm | Report this commentPerhaps this was an update, but she does include
“While his offer (the likes of which tend to pop up on Craigslist boards often, with an equal chance as the gold-digger’s post of being bogus) may seem at first glance…”
So, she did consider that it might be bogus.
Posted by: Gil | November 2nd, 2007 at 9:16 pm | Report this commentGil, Mea Culpa. Apologies to Melissa.
Posted by: Tim Harford | November 3rd, 2007 at 12:00 pm | Report this commentIt’s very striking how much overlap there is between the interests of liberal economics and those of social conservatism.
Posted by: dave | November 5th, 2007 at 3:57 pm | Report this comment