bear in mind that the original choice here is between staying in an early 18th century Parisian prison for the rest of your life (assuming you
survive through all of the expected lootings/riots/prison burnings/mass beheadings that were going on in those days of
normal French daily life....) vs moving to a swampy city on the other side of the world and a completely new life, with a permanent whore. and possibly some disease?
Yeah, we really don't have a fair modern comparison to even joke about this.
Isn't it weird when you think about how all of the non-European "western" countries today--all parts of the US and much of Central America, Australia, much of Canada (I think), the various island families....were places where the colonials banished their prisoners, or offered them easy passage (Much of the WASP descent of the US to this day comes direct from families that first moved out of England to escape debtors prisons.
There really isn't one modern class of general European colonial heritage, that claims "prominence," that
aren't descended from their generation's definition of criminal.