More Diamonds for Your Money
You should read all of Josh Levin’s consumer report on The Emperors’ Club, but I wanted to highlight this passage as particularly useful.
According to a page on “Introduction Fees,” the club ranked its call girls from three to seven diamonds based on “individual education, sophistication, and ambiance.” Prices range from $1,000 for an hour with a three-diamond prostitute up to $3,100 for a seven-diamond hooker; dawn-to-dawn rates go from $10,000 for a three-diamond to $31,000 for a seven-diamond. Bargain hunters take note: $30,000 will buy you a trio of three-diamond prostitutes—that’s a total of nine diamonds for less than the price of a single seven-diamond call girl.
I imagine the Emperors’ Club had some proviso in mind for multi-prostitute scenarios, but there’s no indication of that here.
Reihan, I’m not speaking from any experience with the business side of this thing, but at least based on my experiences with the not-for-profit sector I’d very strongly doubt that the number of diamonds is a linear phenomenon. A six-diamond is almost surely more than twice the, um, buyer satisfaction experience, of a three diamond. Levin’s not thinking it through.
— Sanjay · Mar 11, 04:02 PM · #
Sanjay – I would have assumed the opposite; it seems more likely that the nonlinearity comes from a <I>decreasing</I> return to scale, which would make Levin’s case even stronger.
— Independent George · Mar 11, 05:19 PM · #