BlueViolet said:
mynameisbob84 said:
Obviously there's a dark underbelly to the sex trade that does need to be highlighted and does need to be policed, but it's just that; an underbelly. I can't think of many professions in which people aren't exploited at some level.
On that note, almost every mainstream product or business relies on exploitation of some kind, and I also agree that it needs to be policed. All of it is bad, but everyone points fingers at all sex work instead of fighting exploitation in general and realizing that it happens everywhere. There are sugarcane plantations in the US that are legally allowed to pay their foreign workers below minimum wage for over 40+ hours a week where the workers are often no more than slaves themselves, dying or becoming severely injured while harvesting crops. Some only make $.30 an hour.
Sweatshops work like studios in foreign countries providing us with nice shoes from US businesses, but people still buy shoes from those companies. Most of those women and children forced to work in sweatshops are worked like slaves making close to nothing. There are sweatshops in the US made up of illegal immigrants where the workers are forced to work off their indefinite debt incurred to get them over here, but people still buy knock-off purses and the purse making industry isn't considered dirty.
Yep.
Practically every piece of electronics bought in the US is made in what would be considered practically slave labor camps in China. Low wages, poor work conditions, some even only get paid in company currency now, only good at company stores (that was a big thing in the US years ago, company towns, to keep workers stuck working for them). Most of the clothes we buy are made in sweat shops in Honduras or China or elsewhere. Etc.
All to save the companies providing these products a few bucks per unit in labor.
Now, as to studios in Eastern Europe and other areas... it's a mixed bag.
In Romania, for example, internet access is pretty cheap and fast in the big cities, but the cost of a computer is relatively high. So many girls working in studios (even if initially told it's just a chat site, which does happen) who might want to have done it on their own, simply can't afford the computer to do it. Thus the studios offer the equipment, a place to cam (and some of them with the HD cams and good internet have fantastic quality), etc. for their cut (normally 50% of what they earn). But, enough of them earn enough to get by, even with the cut, and stay working for the studios. Some go solo after getting their own computer, but not all. Some studios even let the models use studio laptops at their homes, under the studio account.
In the Southeast Asian countries yes, it is possible that there is forced labor in some of them, but not all. It really depends, though it is easier to spot those forced into it for the most part (horrible conditions, etc.).
I even know a girl who worked for a studio in Ro, quit, moved to the US, and now does her job here in the US
and MFC. So, obviously she knew the money was there from the camming and she seems to enjoy herself on cam, so she probably wanted to come back. So, it's not like the studio system turned her off to camming.
So, I don't think it's fair to compare all studios to sweatshops, but you could definitely compare some of them to them.
I'm about to listen to it, now, and it's based off that one piece that Mila was interviewed on, right?
. Still within a year she left the industry to take a job at vets office and last I heard was much poorer but happier.
