Pornography, Prostitution,and the Economy

Regarding the argument that pornography creates jobs for people who would other wise not have them:


The economy is going down the drain worldwide, but the sex trade is booming.
Porn is addictive, where many other forms of media are far less so, or are not addictive at all.
People are hooked on porn, and they get an arousal addiction. They spend money on that, and don't have it to spend on other forms of entertainment or other luxuries or, in severe cases, even on necessities.

How does that benefit it the economy?
If the money that was going into the porn industry were used for about anything else, it would go a lot farther. If it were invested, it could start thousands of businesses and create jobs that people might choose freely and not out of extreme desperation.
NO ONE chooses to work in the sex trade freely,trafficked or not. If the other option is dying for lack of basic resources, that is not freedom of choice being exercised.
Put the money into building the economy, not into exploitation.

I met a young lady once, in her early twenties. She lived in horrible poverty growing up and suffered considerable abuse and willful neglect (not a lack of resources causing her mom not to meet her needs, but deliberate neglect even when resources were available). Her mom had actually stolen her identity, ran up several thousands of dollars in bills, and then left it like that so when she came of age it impacted her employability and her ability to get an apartment and etc. She had to get her apartments in someone else's name,usually a man who put her bills and such in his name in exchange for you-can-guess-what, and then she paid the bills out of her disability check. Off and on, from her adolescence, she had sold her body. In her late teens, she had worked for an escort service, which brings me to my point in telling his story:
She told me of a a time when a man paid her $7,000 to do something very disgusting, which I wish she had never told me about.... Most of it went for drugs to try to survive the emotional damage that this lifestyle, I guess especially that incident, caused her,and from which she never really recovered. She saidit generates an amazing amount of money but is not worth it. She took huge amounts of prescription anti-depressants and street drugs to keep from resorting to suicide. Several years after leaving that behind her, she still needed a lot of anti-depressants for severe suicidal depression, and endless counseling.
If a person has $7,000 to spend on a night out, how many concert tickets,t-shirts, and EPs might that buy them? There are so many things a person can get that can be enjoyed for many years, that cost less than that. There are numerous ways a person can amuse themselves on a weekend, making memories worth having with those they care about. Addiction of the sort that man almost certainly had robs people of the ability to enjoy those things, and this does a lot of damage to the economy. The music and film industries are both suffering now, along with many others. Yet this addictive and damaging industry is thriving, Its not that there is no money, but little money is going into productive things. Buying band T-shirts supports the band, the silk-screeners, the makers of the t-shirt, those involved with growing the cotton, the makers of the dye, the makers of the equipment used to make the dye, grow the cotton, weave the shirt, and silkscreen it, and all the transportation businesses involved in getting these various products to the next phase in the process. Buying CDs affects bands, and everybody in any way connected to producing the CD or the equipment used in making and recording the music.
When that young woman gave in to that man'swishes, she, her pimp, and drug dealers benefited financially, no one else. She also suffered tremendous psychological damage from these activities, in addition to the circumstances that pushed her into those activities in the first place.

The sex and illicit drug industries are worse about hogging profits then mega corporations are, and do not improve the economic conditions in the areas where they thrive.
If you care about people having jobs, don't support, or tolerate, the sex trade. 
Unless you want an economy that runs solely on hard drugs and various forms of prostitution, don't support,or tolerate, the sex trade.

Godspeed.

~Mother Star

How to save the world - or at least get it started

Well, I think I have a game plan for saving the world, at least with regard to peak oil.
It will cause less need for oil fuel in several ways, as well as reducing dependance on coal and multi-national power companies.



Alcohol can be a gas, portable gas stations, Hammond IN and St. Louis, and all around periphery of IL, especially near Chicago land.  Fight fake biofuel producers through undercutting. Let people know about permaculture, the laws, and the difference between ADM and real biofuel.
Prob do same thing in and around NYC as much as possible, and also L.A. which has already been impacted by homemade alcohol movements.



Get into real estate investment and make houses as ecological as possible,
Put solar,wind, etc on them and rent them until solar pays for itself before selling houses and going on to next ones. Put food forests on as many as possible. Passive solar sunspaces or greenhouses attached to as many as possible, especially in cold climates. Try to focus on section 8 type neighborhoods and get houses cleared for section 8.

Advertise on craigslist in the headlines that there is renewable energy generation on it. Focus on one city or neighborhood at a time. Go until other investors start doing same thing in area, or until run out of suitable houses, then go on to other town/neighborhood.
Other investors may (hopefully will) eventually have to start adding renewables in order to stay competitive, because renters will want the advantages of the lower power bills. This will either lead to being able to start working in different area,or to more local investors selling their properties for a song because they cannot compete in the market.

In time, having more homes producing their own energy will cause the energy costs in the region to go down, because demand will decrease. Programs to help people pay their power bills, or "flat rate"programs may become unnecessary for more people in area. If people get small checks in the mail instead of bills, they may start trying to conserve power in order to get paid more,causing even more reduction in demand for power plant energy.

As more low income people see the benefits of permuculture and food forests,it could spark interest,leading to demand for classes and workshops. If they are allowed to sell the produce from the food forests if they live on the property,they could be more capable of paying their part of the rent (assuming section 8). This could then lead to legal and beneficial product (healthy food) being sold on street increasing access to healthy food in these communities. Fruit and nut trees could be especially valuable in this.

When giving workshops,make people aware of laws that stand in way of permaculture takeover (E.G.gray water systems), and explain how to lobby for change (give contact info for state and local officials).

When community has fuel issues being addressed through community lobbying or better, when investors are adding renewable energy sources to rentals, and prepared groups are working on food forests, relocate to other region or shift focus to other neighborhood.


In case someone if totally confused, here is a link to a free online intro class on permaculture
https://www.openpermaculture.com