I suspect there's a lot of dated and incomplete information here. I first began visiting Thailand while working in Japan and Hong Kong. I played a lot of our friend RockyRoad, traveling all around the country. In virtually every city or town of sufficient size, there were brothels catering to local Thais. They were not hard to spot...girls sitting outside beckoning local men. It isn't just "fat, smelly old farang" in Pattaya who serve as customers in Thailand. My second point is that many women join not to take care of a child, but because the money is significant. In my non-entertainment business I employ several young Thai females. I know from them---their friends---that today many young women choose to enter the field because they like the money. Some are uni students serving as paramours of local politicians and military types. Some work the agogos of Nana and Soi Cowboy. They use the income to pay for a lifestyle that a job working the counter at KFC (~10,000 baht/month) simply cannot cover. An attractive young woman can earn more than the "old, fat, smelly farang" she services. When even "good women" hear their friends are making 200,000 or more in a Nana agogo, there is temptation. I do not know the percentages, but I'm willing to bet the % of mothers working in the major agogos is quite a bit less than it was 10-20 years ago. The Thai fertility rate is way down from a decade or two ago, and that likely covers young women who might be fodder for the entertainment industry. The incentive now is that agogo work is one of the few ways a young woman can keep up with inflation. Very attractive women can make $60-120K a year in the trade, or else $4K a year working at KFC. Were I one of those women, I cannot say I wouldn't choose Nana over KFC. I also think there is less social stigma to working that field. Other than the hi-so elite, most Thais are struggling and in heavy debt. They understand why young women might be tempted by such work. Perhaps the few remaining folks who look down on such women are hi-so wives of men who probably have paramours on the side. Whatever the view was in the past, I think it's a virtue signaling kind of hypocrisy that claims the majority of Thai society still looks down on bargirls and massage workers, at least in the major cities.
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