Strip clubs feel recession's pinch

RICK and other leisure stocks are very cyclical in nature.  The company should return to strong sales growth and also achieve profitability when the US economy improves.

Not at all surprising since there is less money to throw around.  Strippers and **** have always made more net income than the more conventional female employee.  This is due in no small part because much if not all of their income is never reported for taxes.  The down sides are the risks of injury from the freaky customers, social diseases, and no conventional benefits.  Also your career is age limited for obvious reasons.  When the choice is $8.00 an hour versus $108.00 per hour and you are trying to keep from losing your home, raise and educate your kids, and keep food on the table the choice is quite clear.

The surprising part is the number of young men turning to this profession becoming male strippers, escorts, and even male ****.  Even more scary is the number of pubescent teens engaging in this sort of activity on an occasional basis in order to get the "things" they want but their parents can no longer afford.  In the past year I have been approached in the malls and in some instances right in the stores by teenaged girls offering various sexual services for money.  Since comprehensive sex education is virtually non-existent in this country these girls and boys have no idea of the dangers they face in such activities.  All they see is getting the equivalent of a weeks pay from a fast food joint for 15 or 20 minutes of sexual degradation in a mall parking lot.  What they don't see is the effects of an accidental pregnancy or a lifetime of fighting HIV or living with herpes or worse yet getting murdered by some fringe area lunatic.  This is not a moral issue but rather one of public health and safety.  Because there are no organized and managed outlets for people with overactive libidos these kids have a eager and ready market for their services and once they discover how lucrative it is it becomes easier and easier for them to resort to such behavior.

Another development is the number of young people and couples who candidly and unabashedly expose their sexual antics in videos for distribution on the internet porn sites.  It is safe, anonymous, and can be quite lucrative.  In many instances middle aged housewives appear to have opted for this as a means of augmenting their household incomes.  As one legal Nevada prostitute said in a recent documentary " where else could I make between $150,000.00 and $200,000.00 per year working just 4 days a week for 5 or 6 hours per day?"

True the sex industry is feeling the pinch of these difficult economic times but it is the most basic form of free enterprise and there will always be a market for its goods and services.  It is a bit like being a barber or hair dresser.  No matter where you go you can always set up shop and at least make a living and when times get tough the survival instinct wins out every time.  I have no problem with such career choices when made by adults.  In fact my personal opinion is that prostitution should be legalized, taxed, controlled, and regulated.  However when children start resorting to this sort of activity for nothing more than trinkets and vanity items it becomes a different story.  As Bill Mahre said "when young girls start selling coochie for Gucci" there is something really wrong in our society.  In the past four generations we have become terribly spoiled having never known true deprivation.  In post war Europe and Japan sex trade was a necessity for ones survival as it was during the Great Depression in the U.S.A.  These people were trying to keep from starving.  Today our kids fall into this activity for nothing more than a new pair of Nike shoes or a cutesy tank top and matching skirt.

We create many of our own monsters and in our efforts to eradicate all forms of sexual trade (strippers, porn producers, and prostitution) on moral grounds we have instead created a generation of 13 and 14 year old **** who say "it is kind of fun, feels good, and gets me lots of easy money" I would say that we have created a big one. 

Perhaps it is a good time to buy a piece of Rick's Cabaret? It would be nice to walk into the place and tell the girls you own the place.  In this economy job security is paramount, and ownership of a few shares could potentially pay some serious dividends!