# Converting a price for an illegal commodity in the past **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 11, 2010, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-a-price-for-an-illegal-commodity-in-the-past/542774 "2010-06-11T07:38:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AllFreedomUnlessDefyingScience](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@AllFreedomUnlessDefyingScience](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllFreedomUnlessDefyingScience)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-a-price-for-an-illegal-commodity-in-the-past/542774/1 "2010-06-11T07:38:04Z")
In the movie “Risky Business” (1983) prostitute Lana (Rebecca DeMornay) charges $300/night for her services. I don’t know much about the pricing of such things, but can anyone translate that into modern currency, and also give an idea where it would place her in the spectrum of prostitutes in 1983? The movie gives the impression she is middle to high class but I’m curious what her pay would have meant in the real world. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-a-price-for-an-illegal-commodity-in-the-past/542774/2 "2010-06-11T08:42:31Z")
Using the first inflation calculator that pops up in a Google search, that comes out to roughly $638 in today’s money. If that’s a per hour rate that’s pretty high for a prostitute (i.e. definitely “high class”). But sometimes they have “overnight” rates which are quite a bit more expensive and it wouldn’t really be that much in that case. Uh… if you want a cite, you can always do research by looking on any number of websites that offer these kind of services (they are ubiquitous and easy to find). ---
**Author:** ![AllFreedomUnlessDefyingScience](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@AllFreedomUnlessDefyingScience](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllFreedomUnlessDefyingScience)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-a-price-for-an-illegal-commodity-in-the-past/542774/3 "2010-06-11T08:44:52Z")
That gives a framework for the value of the money, but I don’t know if modern craigslist pricing gives a good idea of cost, there are so many variables that have changed. Anyone know a someone who was a Chicago Vice cop in the 80’s? ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-a-price-for-an-illegal-commodity-in-the-past/542774/4 "2010-06-11T19:02:08Z")
In Super Freakonomics, they profile a Chicago call girl who in 2007 was charging $500/hr. She had been charging $300/hr, but began bumping the price up by $50 every few months until she thought she would hit a drop-off in business, which never occurred. > [@](#): > > Her price hikes revealed another surprise: the more she charged, the less actual sex she was having. At $300 an hour, she had a string of one-hour appointments with each man wanting to get in as much action as he could. But charging $500 and hour, she was often wined and dined – “a four-hour dinner date that ends with a twenty-minute sexual encounter,” she says, “even though I was the same girl, dressed the same, and had the same conversations as when I charged $300.” She eventually returned to college to study Economics. ---
**Author:** ![AllFreedomUnlessDefyingScience](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@AllFreedomUnlessDefyingScience](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllFreedomUnlessDefyingScience)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-a-price-for-an-illegal-commodity-in-the-past/542774/5 "2010-06-11T19:22:21Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > She eventually returned to college to study Economics. I think you mean study Economics _formally_. As they said about Lana in “Risky Business”: “What a capitalist” ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/converting-a-price-for-an-illegal-commodity-in-the-past/542774/6 "2010-06-11T22:51:15Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > In Super Freakonomics, they profile a Chicago call girl who in 2007 was charging $500/hr. She had been charging $300/hr, but began bumping the price up by $50 every few months until she thought she would hit a drop-off in business, which never occurred. > She eventually returned to college to study Economics. She probably should have been _teaching_ it, at that point.