The New Orleans bead based economy is a strange thing. You can buy the same good beads for a few dollars a bag but those are worthless. The only ones that are a truly worth anything are based on the number of steps it took for them to end up on you through legitimate transactions (mostly nudity and sex based).
I went to college in New Orleans and worked in an upscale hotel that held elite events. It was shocking what so-called normal people would do especially during Mardi Gras season and the flashing is just the least of it. We had a high tolerance for depravity just like everyone in the hospitality industry there does but some people still pushed it to far and they often weren’t the ones you would expect.
I sometimes had to physically eject people for having sex in public areas among anything else they could come up with. We aren’t talking about your typical degenerates here. It is amazing what a school teacher from Iowa will do for simple beads once she gets there even if she never considered it before she got there. Some people definitely respond to their pent up desires when they find a favorable environment.
I even had to pick up a 65+ year old woman in the chair she was sitting on with the help of two other coworkers and set her outside the hotel right next to St. Charles Ave. because she had gotten so out of control. Nobody needed to see or hear that.