I recommend the autobiographical, category defining book on street work - Pimp: The Story of My Life by Iceberg Slim. [0]

It’s dystopian and might be a hard read for some of you, but it might rectify a lot of the idealistic visions of what this work looks like.

It’s violence and predation all the way up and down. It’s hard to see how California isn’t failing the people and communities it claims to stand up for.

[0] https://www.amazon.com/Pimp-Story-Life-Iceberg-Slim/dp/14516...

Read the “popular highlights” for a quick introduction.

> despite being one of the few jobs that lets workers can seize control of their own working conditions and avoid the kind of capitalist abuses this article talks about.

The vast majority of prostitutes can no more choose their own working conditions than any other working stiff. Pushed out onto the streets by poverty, prey to sociopathic men, the average prostitute is mired in a dangerous, destructive, difficult-to-escape lifestyle that destroys her health and vitality.

The recent move towards Internet-enabled prostitution that empowers the working girl is very much an aberration. For an introduction to this topic, pick up Iceberg Slim's Pimp.

http://www.amazon.com/Pimp-Story-Life-Iceberg-Slim-ebook/dp/...