A History of Sex as a Business 08 | The Business Model: How the Industry Actually Works

A History of Sex as a Business 08 | The Business Model: How the Industry Actually Works30 Jul17 min

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<html><p>If you wanted to build a business that generates enormous profit from other people's bodies, that is extraordinarily resistant to law enforcement, and that reliably replenishes its own labor supply — what would it look like? Because that business exists, and understanding its mechanics is the first step toward dismantling it.</p><p>This episode is different from the others in this series. We are stepping back from the historical narrative to examine something more structural: how commercial sex exploitation actually works as a business, across time and across different legal environments. We are going to look at recruitment, control, profit extraction, and the specific economic logic that makes this industry so persistent.</p><p>I want to be clear about something before we start: not everyone who works in commercial sex is being exploited in the trafficking sense. Some people make genuinely autonomous choices to work in this industry and have the actual freedom to make and revise those choices. Those people exist, and their autonomy deserves respect. This episode is not about them, though the policy questions it raises affect them directly. This episode is about the business model of exploitation — and that is a different, darker thing.</p><h3><strong>Recruitment: How People Enter the Industry Against Their Will</strong></h3></html>