Tier 1, Tier 3, and the Perp Walk Between

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Spitzer is teaching us a lot about the habits of men who pay for sex, the savvy of the tech-age women who provide it, and about the super-rich and their…hangers-on. Who knew Econ 101 would come in so handy?

According to Slate, when Giuliani drove hookers off the streets, he just drove them inside. There, the savvy ones, the ones who’d never populate street corners, saw their prices skyrocket; middle class men could cruise the personals and escort ads, rather than stroll in vice squad territory. Though figures are obviously difficult to come by, Bob from Accounting seems to be venturing online for sex a hell of a lot more often than he was willing to go down by the docks, and today’s computer-savvy working girls are making him pay through the nose for greater invisibility. Did any of Giuliani’s whiz kids see this coming?

Of course, once the average guy started ponying up for call girls, the super-rich had to up the ante. Now, it’s not unusual for men to put their favorites on $10,000 per month retainers, or pay $10K per “session.” Apparently, paying a year’s worth of private school tuition for an hour of sex is the new diamond-encrusted yacht. Let’s see Joe Average get one of these! According to the Wall Street Journal:

“…a sizable percentage of the super wealthy use escorts. [Researchers] surveyed 661 people who owned private jets, and found that 34% of males and 20% of females had paid for sex.”

“The most popular reason was “unique experiences” (71%), followed by “higher quality experiences” (57%). Conventional wisdom says that the rich visit escorts to avoid messy break-ups or extra demands for cash. But the study shows otherwise: “No strings attached,” ranked last as a reason.”

“With the wealthy,” Mr. Prince says, “it’s all about power and control and new experiences.”

Or maybe it’s just about conspicuous consumption, since sex seems to be an afterthought. Writes the Slate sociologist, who’s studying high-end prostitutes in New York:

What high-end clients pay for may surprise you. For example, according to my ongoing interviews of several hundred sex workers, approximately 40 percent of trades in New York’s sex economy fail to include a physical act beyond light petting or kissing. No intercourse, no oral stimulation, etc. That’s one helluva conversation. But it’s what many clients want. Flush with cash, these elite men routinely turn their prostitute into a second partner or spouse. Over the course of a year, they will sometimes persuade the woman to take on a new identity, replete with a fake name, a fake job, a fake life history, and so on. They may want to have sex or they may simply want to be treated like King for a Day.

His analysis? Spitzer got busted not because he spent too much, but because he spent too little. Kristen, you see, is only Tier 1:

“Fees usually range from $2,000 to $5,000 per session; women come in all ages and ethnic stripes; they rigorously guard their health and watch for STDs; and most have a high-school degree but have limited work experience. They can promise you discretion, but most work through escort services that are routinely under surveillance. In practice, this means buyer beware.”

Tier 3-ers, the $10k girls, “date” their clients for long periods before agreeing to sex, rely on references from other escorts, tend to have a stable of a few “regulars,” and avoid relationships with those highly surveilled agencies. Also, they’re mostly white.

In short, you’re much less likely to end up perp-walking if you pay more.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate