By Jess McCabe | 23 September 2008, 16:40

Here’s a very literal example of the way women are viewed as commodities:

A US lawyer has been tracking the “High End Girlfriend Index”, and the “High End Stripper Index” according to the Daily News.

“You have a Wall Street guy and he looks like one of the seven dwarfs,” Hayes says.

The schlub finds himself with a fabulous girlfriend such as used to brush pasthim as if he were a wall. He will do almost anything to keep her if his magic millions suddenly evaporate, even selling his watch and cuff links.

“The last overhead to go is a really high-end girlfriend,” Hayes says. “If you’re a short, ugly 40-year-old guy and you’re throwing over a high-quality girlfriend, you’re desperate.”

The absolute economic low comes with a realization that Hayes summarizes in a sentence.

“I can’t afford her anymore!”

And then:

For good measure, the HEGI is confirmed by the High End Stripper Index. Hayes allows he has a certain admiration for the strippers he has represented.

“They’re all homecoming queens with no fathers who are in grad school,” Hayes boasts. The tuition has become increasingly difficult to pay in recent days, with some strippers resorting to selling their favors.

“No investment bankers go in and throw $100 a pop at them anymore,” Hayes says.

Via Boinkology

For anyone who’s interested in easy-to-understand breakdowns of the financial crisis that’s going on right now, I just heard that NPR radio in the US has launched a Planet Money podcast.