Erstellt am: 2. 8. 2011 - 14:05 Uhr

'Sugar' Daddy Paid For My Degree

An increasing number of American university students are 'dating' their way out of school loan debts.

The knock-on effects for a dire national economy are thousand-fold but the one I’ve recently been made aware of made me realise just how bad the situation is in the United States.

EPA

An ever-increasing number of young men and women are registering to websites like Seeking-Arrangement.com in order to either pay back their university fees debt or come up with tuition.

The tough financial times in the US have been particularly bad for students. Unemployment rates are sky-high and the average starting salary has not met increasing inflation so not only are 20-somethings having to live with their parents, they are burdenend with major student loan debts. American student financial aid websites have calculated that the average 2011 graduate, finished school with about $27,200 in debt.

‘Dating’ websites like Seeking Arrangement.com claim to provide ‘relief’ to students needing cash. By matching wealthy ‘Sugar Daddies/Mommies’ with attractive “Sugar Babies”, everybody wins—according to these types of services.

Is it prostitution? In the US, technically not. No sex is being solicited or offered so no laws are being broken. This, of course, doesn’t mean that sexual favours aren’t involved.

During precarious economic times in the States during the early 1900s, some young women who held minimum-wage jobs, led a double life. They would supplement their paychecks by meeting up with older men in the evenings. Together they would go out and sex would be part of this arrangement and the women would use whatever money they could get in exchange for rent money.

But these women would never refer to themselves as sex workers orprostitutes. It was seen by them as something temporary, a necessity to get by in order to pay the bills for now, until the economy improved and the hard situation they found themselves in took a turn for the better.

Wind forward 100 years and some analysts are wondering if history is repeating itself with America’s current economic woes pushing some students into making choices they wouldn’t otherwise consider.

Also on today's Reality Check: Turkey and the Generals

The military has cast its long shadow over Turkish politics for decades. In fact military intervention in politics has been a real mark of modern Turkish history. But after a series of high level resignations, is the power and might of the generals coming to an end?

FM4 Reality Check

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