What does it mean to go on a paid date with a man four times your age?

Recently, it seems a rise of a new-found prostitution has found itself among college students worldwide — the sugar daddy/sugar baby epidemic centers itself around the idea that people are either

A) lonely and rich

B) poor and willing.

Does the idea of perpetuating a sugar baby relationship open a marketplace for prostitution? Where does the line that defines the two come in? As Brandon Wade, founder of popular sugar daddy website SeekingArrangement, once awkwardly argued, “Love is a concept made up by poor people.”

Opinions such as his have been amplified in current pop culture: TV shows, plays and movies about what it means to be a sugar baby are popping up everywhere! Don’t believe me? Check out “The Girlfriend Experience.”

Because of this boom in media, sex is becoming a more culturally acceptable action to just throw around. Before, the idea of sex on the first date was something frowned upon and oftentimes scolded.

But now, sex on the first date is exactly what sugar daddies can be paying for. Now, don’t get me wrong, if the sugar baby chooses to, the relationship can remain purely virtual, limiting itself to video and photographic exchanges. But it can also be argued to withhold the same emotional commitment a standard relationship does.

The bigger question at hand isn’t just the cultural acceptance of sexuality and the price it goes for, but rather, what state of economy must we live in in order for this to be necessary? As Bernie Sanders has made more-than-clear in his campaign, the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour just isn’t enough to cut it for some people.

Let’s look at some numbers: At $7.25 an hour, minimum wage workers earn an average of about $15,000 a year. With the average cost of a public university being a whopping $22,958 (a sad three grand over the minimum wage), it’s hard to believe that college students can genuinely afford to pay for their own education. Sure, there’s always the option to take out loans, but when you’re living by yourself and have a stack of bills on the kitchen table, wouldn’t it sound appealing to you if you could made hundred of dollars a week just by sending pictures to a stranger?