In response to the actual thread there at CERB, I think that anyone in any profession that is great at what they do, deserves to be paid and compensated well. That's the laws of capitalism. However, there's a certain economic timewarp that a lot of this current economy is in, and it's not just relegated to SP's.....the music industry and TV industry are scrambling right now. In the case of music, file sharing and the sheer amount of competition that the internet has opened up, has forced bands and labels to offer music for drastically reduced prices. For example, a cd in 1985 was $25-$30. Now, people often can't charge past $10-$15 without being accused of price gouging. The costs of certain things have gone down (bands can record at home, can distribute their own material online, etc), but if you want to tour a record, gas and hotels/ food have gone way up since 1985. And you used to have to hear about things from word of mouth, primarily. But online, the competition has opened up probably a thousand fold, if not more. You're now competing with every band on every block in every corner of the world.
If we transpose that to the SP world, BP and EC have opened up the competition far more than something like 20 years ago, when you used to primarily (unless you had an "in" with a friend on a recommendation) resort to massage parlors, bath houses or streetwalkers.
You have probably more independent SP's, but in some ways, I wonder if a lot of them are not better off under the massage parlors and bath houses, where things are regulated and controlled for SP's a little more. I mention this, because as the competition increases, you have girls (some who are offering bareback everything), trying to one up the other girls to offer things that make them stand out. It's not always for the best reasons of the SP or the customer. These sorts of things have always gone on, but you have to wonder if they're not happening more nowadays. Bareback anything, even if that's just a blowjob, is a risky proposition.