Treat Sex Like Any Commodity, Asian Economist Argues
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SINGAPORE — Rational people should treat sex just like any other commodity, according to an economist at the National University of Singapore.
Euston Quah wrote in the latest issue of the monthly Singapore Business that people should “choose that quantity of sexual experience that will maximize his or her net gains.”
“There are costs to having sex,” he said, “and these costs increase as sexual experiences increase. Sex is an economic activity since it involves the allocation of scarce resources--the time, energies and money--among competing uses.”
Costs included buying contraceptives, fashionable clothing and cosmetics, as well as time taken in sexual encounters and preparation for these encounters, he went on.
Like all market commodities, Quah said, sex is being “molded, packaged and promoted” through commercial advertising or prostitution.
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