Stripper Math

I just finished a 30 minute discussion with one of my little darling dancers. The topic of the evening? Finances. Yes, I spent half an hour of my life banging my head against a proverbial wall with this one. If "Stripper A" owes rental fees to "Club B" and can't pay them what are we to do? A cute 21 year old has fallen in arrears with her club rental fees. She has reached the cut off point and can not owe any more. So, after arriving late for her shift and having an emergency that required her to leave for more then an hour the end of the night has arrived. With more then 70 customers through the door we would expect the night to be relatively profitable for most of the girls. But not this one. The dancers are given a choice between either A) pay their rent when they arrive or B) pay at the end with a 33% mark up. Most of the girls have learned in time that it is much better to pay $30 then it is to pay $40. At the end of the month this is a great savings. Then we have the few, the proud, the "special".

The young lady in question tonight had apparently borrowed money from her boyfriend without his knowledge and went shopping with it. Now she didn't bother to pay the $30 when she arrived at the club, but rather, bought a couple of new outfits that were "too cute". After 9 hours and 72 customers she has amassed a whopping $55. She doesn't wish to part with any of this money since she owes said boyfriend exactly $55 and if he finds out that she took it there will be problems at home. What follows is an excerpt from the conversation:

"But it's not my fault. The customers just didn't like me." "Perhaps it is because you sat on your ass all night?" "No. I sat with this one guy for like 10 minutes at the start of the night and he didn't do a dance." "Well, that is almost 2% of the night and over 1% of the customers accounted for." "But I only smoked like 5 or 6 cigarettes and and I was in the dressing room getting changed only like 2 times." "I see. But I never said this is your 'fault', I said it was your 'responsibility'. You have owed me this money for nearly a month now and you aren't getting caught up. Maybe this should tell you that this isn't the right job for you. You are telling me that my customers don't like you so maybe you shouldn't be here." "NO! That's not what I meant." "You could go upstairs and ask your sister to borrow the $30 you still owe for tonight and then you can pay her tomorrow." "No, I don't like to owe people money." (While burying head in hands) "You do realize that YOU owe ME money right???" "But I did really good one night when I first came back. It isn't my fault we're in a recession now." "Honey, we've BEEN in a recession. We aren't going to stop being in a recession anytime soon. How do you expect to survive if you don't try to make any money?" "I did try. I almost cried the first time someone said that we were in a recession." "OK, this conversation is over. There's nothing more that can come of this so you can either find $30 tonight or find $60 before you work here again. I don't care how or where, I'm done." (Exit Stripper A)

Incidentally, she didn't bother to try to find the money. She just went home. Yes, dear loyal reader, this is what I refer to as "stripper logic". Why save $30 from last night to pay when I arrive today when I can just spend $40 of what I make tonight to pay 8 or 9 hours later? After all, it's ONLY $10 a day, $50 a week, $2600 a year... What's the big deal? Maybe it's just me but I think they have a great future in politics.