Reply #15: The point that I was making is that increases in such things are a measure of economic desperation.

[sudopod]

Just saying "poledancing (and so forth) has always been there" is not only a trivially true statement, it misses the point.

Yes, it's always there to some degree, but has it increased? If so, why? It's the d/dt that matters in this case.

I would put forward that a substantial increase in poll dancing among college students might have a little something to do with the deep cuts in public education spending in the UK, and the subsequent yearly tuition increases on the order of thousands of pounds. I would like to think that conservatives attacking education, thereby causing young folks to take possibly dangerous jobs is an obvious bad thing. It is especially sad because, until recent times, it seemed that the UK had avoided this sort of bullshit.