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Two Jewish Economists Walk into a Cyber Brothel

By on October 19, 2017

SCIENCENSEX

Written by Joseph Dunsay. After earning a Masters of Science in Ecology and Evolution, Joseph Dunsay became a science writer for international audiences. Find more Jewrotica writing by Joseph here.

Rated PG-13
The coming robot revolution in the workplace has many people worried. There is much debate about the way robots will affect the job market. Larry Summers is worried that robots will cause a third of men between the ages of 25 and 54 to become unemployed. Others recall the time Milton Friedman sarcastically quipped that a government should give workers spoons to dig a canal with if it wants to create jobs. The wise economist understood that people work to create goods and services, and machines make life better by allowing them to accomplish this with less labor.

More people than ever before are buying sex dolls and robots from places like Sex ‘n Dolls. While most people buy them for personal use, the future of sex work also looks robotic. Sex at a brothel is a service like many others in the modern economy. It is subject to automation given the right conditions. One entrepreneur established a robotic brothel in Spain, sparking protests from sex-workers who feared loosing their jobs to robotic competition. History shows that these sex-workers should welcome robotic brothels rather than fight them.

Sex robots are like 18th Century spinning machines. When Richard Arkwright’s cotton-spinning machinery came on the scene in 1760, England had 7,900 professional spinners and weavers. By the end of that century, 320,000 English workers earned a living from spinning and weaving. The labor productivity made possible by spinning machines brought the work of making cloth out of the domestic sphere and into the paid marketplace. Purchased cloth replaced homespun, and women were freed from hours of unpaid chores. Generations of automation made it easier for women to enter the workforce by reducing the hours of unpaid labor they do.

A similar process can revolutionize sex-work by automating it. Robots could provide satisfaction to customers more cheaply than sex-workers do. The lower prices will boost demand, which in turn will create jobs for former sex-workers who can be the madams of robotic brothels. As men spend more time with sex robots, women will be freed from the unpaid work of satisfying them in bed. They can reallocate these hours to their professional lives and bring home higher incomes. Overall, sex robots are a boon for women, whether they work in the industry or not.

After earning a Masters of Science in Ecology and Evolution, Joseph Dunsay became a science writer for international audiences. His LGBT erotic e-book launched in the summer of 2015.
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