There was a heavy discussion on haggling in my site, wherein some pseudo-intellectual defended his right to haggle which resulted in some back-and-forth parley between him, myself, and a well-known escort handler. I would agree that everyone has a right to haggle as much as the PSP has the right to refuse. I have touched on haggling before but I thought I would elaborate on this: I don’t mind haggling. A good businessman has to master the art of negotiation. But what separates the gracious from the brash is their manner of haggling.

So, I was irked with this:

Everyone is in a saving mode. So, for now, all are in a “happy budget meal” mode. Just as in the wholesale business, your profit margin may be low but you can make it up through volume; not like in retail, you can have a high profit margin but with only little sales. It’s like fishing in the pond with a few fish in it. And right now, there are so many who are in need and thus so many choices.

I detest this approach because it appears that the client is offering advice to the PSP. And the advice here is that the PSP should lower her price to attract more customers, especially in this economic climate.

Personally I don’t see the connection. The economic climate will first impact corporations. I hardly expect this to impact the PSP market. The fallout of this economic crisis will be increase in unemployment; as more companies suffer a cash flow problem, they could be forced to reduce manpower. And a person who is out of a job should not even indulge in PSPs.

In fact, there is a chance that the opposite may happen—there could be an increase in demand for PSPs. Entertainment tends to be on an upswing during bad times, and economists attribute this to people wanting a respite from all the problems they are facing.

Besides, are you really advising that the PSP should have more clients? Isn’t that wrought with all kinds of health risks (cervical cancer being one of them)? And shouldn’t the point be to get more money as quickly as possible with the least amount of effort and risk?

Okay, I may be wrong in this analysis. I am sure people will challenge me on my interpretation of events. But the point that I am making is that it does not necessarily follow that decreasing price will increase demand. And hence to haggle by appearing to be some expert, offering pseudo-intellecual advice, and appearing to help the PSP, is, for me, deceitful and self-serving.

I have another reason why I don’t haggle palengke-style with PSPs. I am the one with the greater disposable income (otherwise I wouldn’t engage in some frivolous mischief). These are the PSPs, specially those in the P5,000 range, who are in dire need of money that even a P500 reduction would spell a major difference. If I can’t afford it, then I don’t indulge in it.

People also like to compare prostitution with other more mainstream trades. Car repair often pops up as an example. Don’t I haggle with car mechanics? I maintain that the example is a flawed one. With PSPs, there is the factor of human dignity, a factor that doesn’t figure prominently with car mechanics. A car mechanic has a sense of pride in his craft; I don’t think a PSP can brag about what she does for a living.

In short, haggling with a PSP is like insulting a PSP. Sure, some PSPs may not mind. They may treat it lightly with a grain of salt. But I find it insulting nonetheless. And many times, if the service provider detects even a slight disparaging remark, it can translate to cold, mediocre service. And if the difference between a frigid performance and a eye-rolling production was just P500, then I would gladly cough up the dough.

Twitter, the micro-blogging platform that is popular in the technology blogosphere, is now gaining mainstream attention. Barack Obama is on Twitter. So are pop figures like Brittney Spears, Demi Moore, and Ashton Kutcher. I have spotted notable Filipino personalities in Twitter like Mike Abundo (follow) and Manuel L Quezon III (follow).

Twitter is straight-forward. Registration does not need any personal or confidential information. Registration just requires an email address. Once you are setup, you can send any message (up to 140 characters), which are called “tweets,” which will be visible to everyone. If you “follow” someone, then that someone’s tweets will be visible in your homepage. Think of Twitter as a chat room for the world. And Filipinos love those “chat boxes” in forums. With Twitter, the entire internet is your chat box.

But what does this mean for the adult entertainment scene? What does this mean to PSPs or the their customers?

Unlike Facebook or Friendster, which seem to be geared in establishing contacts with friends and colleagues, Twitter is now shaping up to be the tool for networking. And PSPs also need to “network.” How else will they get their clients?

A PSP can “tweet” her availability. And if she has “followers” (who are potential clients), they will immediately know and can contact her. If she has a mobile phone, the PSP can also tweet using SMS or, if she can access the internet through Wi-fi or 3G, can also tweet using a mobile web browser. She can tweet her whereabouts, whether she is in trouble, or, for the kinky, whatever is going on inside the motel room.

If you are still wondering what you can do with Twitter, simply Google “Twitter.” I found some useful tips like this and this.

I, for one, would like to see more and more PSPs in Twitter. It would be interesting to find out what they do in their spare time, what their interests are, if they are free, if they are in need, if they are in trouble. Forums are, in my opinion, passe and subject to the whims of the administrators. Why create personas in different forums when you can be contacted with one persona in Twitter?

For those willing to try, you can follow me at Twitter.