tuscl

Dancers need to prepare for an economic shock

Tuesday, January 15, 2008 10:44 PM
Consider this experienced (no extras) dancer working in a upscale club on the dayshift. She generally attempts 4 shifts per week, sometimes does 2, and on average works 3 shifts per week, basically 12 to 7 pm, and her avg pay per shift is about $350 this past year (versus around 450 to 500 in 2006. That works out to around 50 dollars per hour when she works. The club gives her flexibility if and when she misses her 2 mandatory days - thus giving her near complete schedule flexiblity. She rarely solicits customers for dances, instead letting them ask her. She recently complained to me about making "ONLY 100 dollars" on a Saturday shift. This dancer is unusually decent, but I believe she's become spoiled by the profession and over the years a degree of complacency has set in. A 100 dollars clear is not bad for maybe 2 hours hard work and 4 to 5 hours at a bar schoomzing with various potential customer or quite often time spent talking to other dancers or the bartender. Since she has no particular training or skill other than dancing, her alternatives are either Walmart style cashier work or something similar or maybe waitressing, or something using her model looks and pleasant personality,(e.g as she did yrs back, retail sales clerk in upscale malls, high priced shops of some type) however I doubt there is anything other than escorting (which she will never consider) - that will pay anything close to stripping relative to the effort it requires. Not unlike many dancers, probably 1/2 her shift is typically spent hanging at the bar, (in her case as non-drinker just soft drinks or non-alcholic drinks) - however its an incredibly pleasant way to earn money. The bottom line is for many dancers, especially dancers who have lived in this sort of Land of OZ, where cash flows freely with very little effort, I believe many are going to soon be in for a rude awakening, and as I've mentioned before this could well include more top shelf girls entering the profession - to give laid-back dancers like this some serious competition. Customers are still at the clubs, but they are certainly reducing spending, and those still left with cash are going to want more value for their money, so the easy lifestyles of these type of dancers will soon become relatively rare.

21 comments

  • BobbyI
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    16 years ago
    They'll have to go to school and get real jobs now. Or into rehab since they won't be able to afford their drug addictions. It's a good thing for them!
  • FONDL
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    16 years ago
    David, you're obsessing over this economy thing. The economy would have to enter a severe depression for it to have the kind of impacts that you envision. Sure some girls may make a little less than before and may even have to work an extra shift now and then and try a little hoarder, but they'll still be doing better than most girls their age. I'm sure they can easily adjust by going to the hairdresser and getting their nails done a little less often. It's not that big a deal.
  • harrydave
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    16 years ago
    We should start a thread entitled, Where do strippers go when they retire?, because I think that is the bigger transition each of them must face.
  • David9999
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    16 years ago
    "David, you're obsessing over this economy thing' no kidding, and its been extremely profitable for me in the past decade. I don't think it will take a "severe depression" to have the impacts I'm suggesting, I would say a strong recession would do it. Meanwhile in the United States nearly all of us are spoiled to some degree (not just dancers), a large amount of american consumers have morphed into physically out of shape/lazy thinking over consuming fat tubs of lard (typical of many Walmart customers) and as someone said usually "buying things we don't need, with money we don't have, to impress people we dont' like" - so there is a huge cushion. The bottom line is dancers won't starve, because as Bobbyl says they can real jobs now.
  • David9999
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    16 years ago
    "Where do strippers go when they retire?" Some do quite well. The ones that take care of themselves physically, don't smoke, stay away from drugs, and look at each day in the club as an opportunity - a suprising amount have been able to dance for 15 to 20 years, and some of these have put away alot of the money. We hear about the 1 to 2 yr shelf life of strippers, that could be the norm, but there's this other group that not many people know about, and I believe most of that derives from the relentless media spin on strippers basically being sexually abused, broken down, drug addicted women - who as a last resort ended up in the seedy world of stripping. I have yet to see the major print/cable/broadcast media run a story about strippers that had any positive spin
  • David9999
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    16 years ago
    Some dancers can simply cash in their chips. In regards to "retirement", the sugar daddy or kept mistress route is always an option for some of the more attractive dancers, however given the huge infusion of asian cash (with more on the way) to bail out (most) of the top investment firms in the United States - its increasingly going to be asian interests having the power and control to buy up these girls. No, these dancers won't be starving, and unless they've gotten too old or lost their beauty, they will have other options in life if they are forced out of the strip business.
  • arbeeguy
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    16 years ago
    I do think that successful stripping is an entrepreneurial business and as we all know there are many ways to run a business. The ones who have an entrepreneurial attitude will adjust. A few will suffer, but a lot more will just leave the business because they didn't really care for it that much in the first place. They will hook up with a man to support them or they will graduate from college and get into the profession that they were headed for while they were stripping. However I really don't know what I'm talking about and I admit it.
  • motorhead
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    16 years ago
    "David, you're obsessing over this economy thing" I agree with FONDL - yeah, enough already. OK, maybe it's a little slow at some clubs. So what? Just more opportunities for the rest of us.
  • David9999
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    16 years ago
    "yeah, enough already. OK" Oh I see you've appointed yourself EDITOR of this forum as to what subject can and cannot be brought up by a poster? WHO THE FUCK APPOINTED YOU?
  • casualguy
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    16 years ago
    "David, you're obsessing over this economy thing" Funniest thing I read tonight. Other than checking the local weather at [view link] and seeing the note "precipitation unknown" I'm thinking WTF? Of course we did have 45 minutes of heavy snow and a light dusting accumulation, followed by sleet/snow, then heavy sleet, then apparently some freezing rain, then rain. However I didn't understand how my reliable digital thermometer said the temp dropped to 30.9 but the weather site said it was 35 the whole time. Now my thermometer says it has warmed back up to 33.4 I guess they don't know what's going on here. David, you're obsessing. Lol, yeah it's a fantasy I could enjoy too if I believed it. Just imagine, dancers giving complimentary BJ's just to entice you to get a two for one lap dance. She takes a break then asks, are you ready for a lap dance yet? You say, uuh, not yet, keep warming me up some more and then maybe I'll buy a lap dance in a little while. Or fantasize some more, she finishes warming you up, then she asks "ok are you ready for a lap dance now?" You say, oh honey, we'll have to do that later, I got a headache. I feel so tired and I'm not even sure why. Go ahead and keep obsessing. I thought that what strip clubs were for.
  • David9999
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    16 years ago
    True, "obsessing" about some topic on a forum that has an argubly remote connection to strip clubs and strippers when one cannot physically be at a strip club in person at that moment in time, right, what's the big deal, its just an extension of the fanstasy. To a small degree strip club forums can be the next best thing to being there, right at the strip club. Now obviously those apparent sad and miserable fucks that (for some strange reason) need to constantly tell people what can and cannot be posted in these forums - they will probably not agree, as I suspect most have a complete lack of imagination and are to some degree absent a sense of humor They can push the ignore button.
  • FONDL
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    16 years ago
    The question of what dancers do after they "retire" from dancing is one we've discussed before. IMO most dancers don't think of it that way at all, because they don't think of dancing as their career, it's just something temporary. Most of them are either (1) continuing the high school partying and avoiding real life for awhile longer, or (2) dancing to support themselves while they look for or prepare for a real career, or (3) dancing to raise money without having to put in long hours while they raise their kids. I've met very few dancers who thought of it as their career. Hence there's nothing to "retire" from or to.
  • David9999
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    16 years ago
    FONDL, agree probably 90% think of it as a stopgap, but there is signficant minority, lets say 5 to 10% that really make it into a sort of career. Stripperweb moderator/semi-retired dancer MELONIE, her advice - put 100% into the business, whether for a few years or many years, and treat it like a business in a serious manner, and go for the large money. She believes otherwise the girls end up half baked dancers and half-baked "students" or whatever other supposed career they are working on. The money she says does a huge amount to fix some of the difficulties face in the business, all the crazy things they must deal with. Melonie is extraordinarily bright so she's not an average dancer, however her advice seems right on target
  • Book Guy
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    16 years ago
    I would have to agree -- always in life, do the "active" choice, and do it to the max; and if you're trying to do two things at once, they need to BOTH of them contribute to each endeavor and somehow make possible one another, rather than be opposite ends of a spectrum. Otherwise you'll fail at both. Or, at best, be "half assed" (as mentioned) at both.
  • casualguy
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    16 years ago
    Dancers will have to prepare for an economic shock, if they are taxpayers, they'll probably get a $800 dollar check in the mail courtesy of Bush. I expect I will get one too. If you don't make too much money that is. I expect it will be May before we see it though. I'm planning on investing mine in the stock market and let the money grow and multiply. I think May will be the bottom for the Dow. The question I have right now is "how low will it go?" What will dancers do with an extra 800 bucks? What will strip club customers do with all the extra cash? I guess the high rollers will feel left out since high income people won't get jack. They'll know how I felt recently when only certain people were paid bonuses at work. Except high income people probably have more cash sitting around than I do.
  • casualguy
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    16 years ago
    Lol, ask your favorite dancer if she's going to treat you to a night out with all her extra cash. Or is she going to give you free dances since you paid more of the income tax money than she did (I'm guessing you paid more in taxes than she did.) It only seems fair since you're a taxpayer and that's who is paying for the rebate checks. Somehow I don't think the strippers will go for it.
  • David9999
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    16 years ago
    Note how practically out of nowhere just within a few weeks - all of a sudden we've got the President talking about these cash payments, that tells me he's been tipped on some very ominous upcoming numbers from the Fed or his economic advisors. They will do zilch to prevent a recession, because there will be an offsetting kick up in the interest rates or an additional hit on the dollar - to offset all the extra money being borrowed. There's no free lunch here at all
  • David9999
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    16 years ago
    Just what I thought This is the data just made public and now released via this report Jan 30th, 2007, and obviously President Bush and congressional leaders were tipped on this earlier A short excerpt from the Assoc Press Story entitled ECONOMY NEARLY STALLED IN 4TH QUARTER (QUOTE) WASHINGTON - The economy nearly stalled in the fourth quarter with a growth rate of just 0.6 percent, capping its worst year since 2002. The Commerce Department's report on the gross domestic product, released Wednesday, showed an economy that had deteriorated considerably during the October-to-December quarter as worsening problems in the housing market and harder-to-get credit made individuals and businesses more cautious in their spending. Fears of a recession have grown (END QUOTE)
  • David9999
    •
    16 years ago
    correction: Jan 30th 2008
  • FONDL
    •
    16 years ago
    David, keep in mind that for at least the last 5 years the initial estimates of 4th quarter GNP growth have been resived upward significantly later in the year as Internet sales data trickled in. Government economists have consistently underestimated growth in this fastest growing sector of the retail industry and the statistics gatherers have yet to figure out how to measure it in a timely fashion. First quarter GNP growth may very well turn out to be slightly negative and we may yet have a mild reseccion - odds are probably about 50-50 at this point. But the major downturn that you've been predicting for nearly a year remains unlikely IMO.
  • casualguy
    •
    16 years ago
    Well it appears Ben Bernanke only has 3 percentage points left to play with to save confidence in our financial system. I'm really starting to wonder what would happen if the two bond insurers that have been in the news that control over 2 trillion dollars that are in trouble, what would happen if things get bad? Would that mean money in money market accounts or bonds themselves might lose value? I don't know. Maybe some people are worried about financial panics. I think 95 percent of the public probably has no clue as to what I'm talking about though. They just know the economy is getting worse, mortgage problems exist etc. etc. Meanwhile I'm wondering how bad it's going to get. I'm wondering but hoping money left in 401K money market funds and uninsured bond mutual funds will still be safe if those 2 trillion dollars worth of funds controlled by those two troubled bond insurers get devalued a great deal. I'm thinking it's going to get worse before it gets better and I'm not getting much disagreement on that.
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