Full Idea
Where wealth is concerned, no citizen should be rich enough to buy another, and none should be so poor as to be forced to sell himself.
Gist of Idea
No citizen should be rich enough to buy another, and none so poor as forced to sell himself
Source
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], II.11)
Book Reference
Rousseau,Jean-Jacques: 'The Basic Political Writings', ed/tr. Cress,Donald A. [Hackett 1987], p.170
A Reaction
Rousseau is thinking of slavery, but this also points to prostitution as a key indicator of social equality. In Victorian Britain it seems that extensive prostituion was unavoidable; nowadays it looks more like a voluntary choice (for indigenous Britons).