More Women Turning to Pole Dancing to Make Ends Meet

One positive unintended consequence of this economic catastrophe is that "gentleman's clubs" are seeing an in-flux of babes looking to work the pole. From AP:

As a bartender and trainer at a national restaurant chain, Rebecca Brown earned a couple thousand dollars in a really good week. Now, as a dancer at Chicago's Pink Monkey gentleman's club, she makes almost that much in one good night.

The tough job market is prompting a growing number of women across the country to dance in strip clubs, appear in adult movies or pose for magazines like Hustler.

Employers across the adult entertainment industry say they're seeing an influx of applications from women who, like Brown, are attracted by the promise of flexible schedules and fast cash. Many have college degrees and held white-collar jobs until the economy soured.

While the cash flow is certainly a vast improvement over slinging chicken fingers to fatso families at TGI Friday's, this AP article does not take into account the lady's new spending on the requisite cocaine addiction that often comes with being an exotic dancer. But if she can keep away the demons, there's no reason to believe this isn't a lucrative career option. What other business (besides a casino) can a guy walk in and spend hundreds of dollars in a matter of hours on lap dances in the VIP room because he erroneously thinks "I bet she really likes me, man!". Most male readers of this blog should be able to relate with some level of empathy.

Much like the Depression saw the repeal of the ill-suited Prohibition laws, perhaps we should look at scrapping some of the more ridiculous laws about strip joints. I'm not talking about full-on brothels (yet!), but at least to the level of regulation of Canada, which has some pretty awesome strip clubs. Liberal busybodies like Mayor Nickels of Seattle could stop with the jihad against the flesh industry and actually allow a much-needed shot in the arm (or snatch-in-the-face) to stimulate the economy.