''I'd say I could pay off my debt, ''
Strange that you actually got in debt, when you earned so much money. When I used to work fulltime, it took me around 2 weeks to earn what you earned in 2 hours. And, I managed world travel, as well living debt free(appart from the house mortgage I had, for 10 years) on it.
I didn't do it for that long and it was years ago. I was in financial difficulty thanks to a asshole boyfriend, I had to declare bankruptcy and I was having difficulty paying my rent (which in DC, for a basement apartment, was $1200). I had to do *something*. Working as an escort was the fastest, easiest fix. I didn't bank a bunch of savings, I opted not to do that due to the risk in the area I was in. (meaning that I stopped doing it before I had banked a bunch of money) I wish I HAD banked some now, but at the time, I just assessed that the risk of going to jail was too high. Not to mention the "scandal" possibilities. I didn't want that kind of attention.
My point was, though, that the whole drugged out hooker on a street-corner with an abusive pimp is what people think of when they hear "prostitute". But that's just not the case. Yes, that is one aspect of it, but those gals are the minority. They are just the most visible part of prostitution. The escorts, who make up the majority of prostitutes, make bank, do not have "pimps" (not in the traditional sense of the word), are not abused, and are not illiterate, drugged out gals. Many of them are business women, teachers, college students, etc, etc. I was not even one of the higher class call girls. Why? Because I couldn't AFFORD to be. You should have seen some of the requirements for some of the agencies. I didn't have the wardrobe! LOL And in some cases, I didn't have the DEGREES necessary. The women that I knew were intelligent, educated women. Some with families. The men that were our clients were intelligent, educated, financially well off men, some of whom were VERY attractive. Yes, there were the occasional "weirdos", but that's the other thing... if I got to a place and saw the guy and decided I didn't want to do it after all, guess what? I didn't. I walked away and told the agency to call another girl. And, If I wanted a body-guard, I had one with one phone call.
There are ****ty aspects with every job, but you can't dismiss a whole industry based on the lowest common denominators. Is there crime involved with the sex industry? Without a doubt. But there is crime in every industry. You don't scrap the industry because of the crime. You crack down on the CRIME.
In particular, being an escort was just a very high monetary return for extremely low time and effort. I could have worked a part time job waitressing at night for minimum wage. Making all of maybe $10/hr for a few hours in the evenings. Pulling in $200/week extra minus taxes while being exhausted all the time and working my ass off. Or, I could get paid $500 - 700++/hr. for really doing very little. I mean, very rarely did the guys actually use the whole hour. So really, it was $500 - upwards of a $1000 for sometimes 15 minutes. LOL 
