this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2025
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[–] mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Exactly. Epstein didn’t really care about their age, as much as he cared about whether or not he was able to sell the women off to potential buyers. Underage girls being in high demand (ugh…) led him to trafficking children. But if he had a market for +18 girls, he absolutely would traffic them too. After all, trafficking was his specialty. And as the old saying goes, “the customer is always right.” As long as he could find a customer, he’d be willing to traffic outside of the underage demographic.

The kompromat angle only factors in until Epstein has it. Epstein may be worried about a first-time buyer blabbing about buying a 19 year old… After all, there’s very little risk to the buyer, but a ton of risk for the seller. But if Epstein already has footage of Trump raping 13 year olds, he doesn’t need to worry about Trump blabbing when he traffics a 19 year old.

[–] StopSpazzing@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Fyi

The full quote is often stated as "The customer is always right in matters of taste." This phrase emphasizes the importance of prioritizing customer satisfaction, even if their demands seem unreasonable.

[–] mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I know; that’s exactly why I used the phrase. My point was that Epstein was ultimately just a salesman filling a (highly immoral and illegal) market gap. He noticed there was an established demand, and worked to fill that demand with a supply. If there weren’t any customers for what he was doing, he wouldn’t have been successful. But it also means that he already had the infrastructure set up (and the lack of scruples) for trafficking, so the difference between trafficking a 13 year old and a 19 year old was largely bureaucratic as far as he was concerned.