Pricey $ex $chizophrenia

I find these two stories in the news this week oddly disturbing: (1) Good Morning America's profile piece on Sugar Daddies and (2) the conviction of Cecil Suwal, the 24-year old woman who helped manage a high class prostitution ring (known for uniting NY governor Eliot Spitzer with paid-for lover Ashley Dupré).



Helloooooo? Anybody else see a problem here? There is little difference between services like SugarDaddies.com and Suwal's company Emperor's Club VIP - in fact, the relationships that Suwal profited from are merely a neat subset of those promoted on the web (where people are looking for all kinds of emotional and physical arrangements) - just made formal in the marketplace by a series of discrete financial transactions. I understand that people may not like these relationships or respect them or the parties involved - and that's fine, judge away -  but criminalizing them seems excessive, especially in this economy when we can be taxing them.