indi.ca

This is highly dubious. Miss Travel is a travel/social networking site that connects ‘Generous’ and ‘Attractive’ travelers. To, like, travel together, I guess. It all seems a bit like arranged prostitution and trafficking. This is part of a broader online trend to connect rich men to younger, attractive women. Sites like seekingarrangement.com connects women to ‘sugar daddies’ already. I guess Miss Travel is just taking that trend international. Wait, I checked, it’s the same guy doing both.

Women have long had some preference for older, wealthier guys. Men tend to get better and more confident with age, and have access to and knowledge of more fun places and things. Actually going out and angling for this as a sort of deal, however, is considered uncouth, as most of the profiles I browsed on Miss Travel are. The girls and guys look down for sex, and most of them seem like idiots.

The deal seems inherently creepy and flawed, but who knows. Attractive fools somewhat obviously can’t angle for marriage as it’s a bad deal. As this (I think fakely sourced but interesting) letter from a banker to a gold digger states:

Cutting through all the B.S., what you suggest is a simple trade: you bring your looks to the party and I bring my money. Fine, simple. But here’s the rub, your looks will fade and my money will likely continue into perpetuity…in fact, it is very likely that my income increases but it is an absolute certainty that you won’t be getting any more beautiful!

So, in economic terms you are a depreciating asset and I am an earning asset. Not only are you a depreciating asset, your depreciation accelerates! Let me explain, you’re 25 now and will likely stay pretty hot for the next 5 years, but less so each year. Then the fade begins in earnest. By 35 stick a fork in you!

So in Wall Street terms, we would call you a trading position, not a buy and hold…hence the rub…marriage. It doesn’t make good business sense to “buy you” (which is what you’re asking) so I’d rather lease. In case you think I’m being cruel, I would say the following. If my money were to go away, so would you, so when your beauty fades I need an out. It’s as simple as that. So a deal that makes sense is dating, not marriage.

Sites like Miss Travel or Seeking Arrangement seem to work within this logic. The girls (and male babies) aren’t getting married, they’re just getting along. The guys also aren’t really paying for anything besides the ‘girlfriend experience’. So I guess it’s a win-win. For losers.