The sordid truth about far too many young people

Channel Four is currently airing a documentary about strippers, and it appears that a large number of strippers nowadays are students.  The documentary was filmed in Scotland, where the financial assistance available to students is more favourable than in England.  Nevertheless we cannot expect students ever to receive large amounts of state funding, and so we should not be surprised if many students have part-time jobs during term time.

Meanwhile, a female student at Duke University in North Carolina is working as a pornographic film actress.  Miriam Weeks was raised in a Roman Catholic family and attended a Roman Catholic school.  Duke University was founded by Methodists and Quakers. I merely observe those facts.  Her fees are five thousand dollars each month.  I merely observe that as well.

Miss Weeks has no regrets about working in the porn industry at the moment, but that may not always be the case.

I find it hard to avoid the conclusion that we live in a society which is obsessed with higher education.  I accept that many people see it as a means of self-improvement, and there is doubtless something in that.

Nevertheless there is surely a lot to be said for avoiding a situation which is likely to result in building up debt.  Surely it also makes sense for young women to avoid a situation which is likely to result in them entering a profession which they later have cause to regret.

A stripper is not a prostitute, but many of them are treated like they are prostitutes.  I remember once reading the testimony of a lap dancer who was pleased to be earning around five hundred pounds per week.  I subsequently read in a newspaper that a lot of lap dancers were working as prostitutes because they earned only around five hundred pounds per week from lap dancing.

Let's get this straight.  A supermarket checkout operator earns maybe eleven thousand per year; a call centre operative earns maybe thirteen thousand per year; and a lap dancer earns maybe twenty-five thousand per year.  How many checkout operators and call centre operatives also work as prostitutes?

Maybe we should elect a government which will make it easier for young people to leave school at the age of eighteen (or younger) and find a job within a matter of a few weeks at most.  That way our young people will maybe feel under less pressure to go to university and end up either in debt or working in a dubious occupation.

Update: an American woman called Lea Grover has recently told of her experiences of working in the sex industry while at college.