Should prostitution be legalized?

You're certainly not coming off as jackass and I respect your opinion and even agree with a lot of it. My view is that there are externalities regarding banning prostitution, or any other practice that many would consider immoral but there is still a large demand for, and those externalities have to be weighed against the benefit of banning it. I agree I don't support sex slavery or trafficking but I think that part of that problem is that prostitution is so widely banned where the black market is the primary outlet for it. I think like prohibition if there is a higly regulated legal option it will make it easier to police it.

I have a difference of opinion but you making a strong and forceful argument for your view doesn't make you a jackass at all.

 

Not exactly. While AIDS is a terrible and horrible disease food poisoning, such as botulism, will kill you much faster. STD's are a very important issue but in terms of both immediate and in general human health the safety of the food supply is much more critical.

So knowing the dangers of salmonelli, ecoli, botulism, mad cow and all sorts of food related problems do you stay away from restaurants, or grocery stores, since they aren't tested constantly?

 

Pretty much sums up the whole thing, you're turning the cart into the horse here... you hate the game, rightfully so. But you have no right to hate (i.e. punish) the players. Putting cash numbers to a human life or suffering isn't restricted to just prostitution... in fact, its pretty much the status quo! You can hate people mistreating one another, but you can't hate a profession. Its possible to mistreat someone through many different channels, banning the channel doesn't end mistreatment. In fact, it makes it worse.

Your argument seems to center around making the exception into the rule, and your tone in your posts seems pretty much grounded in morality, instead of reason, and its quite condescending. I realize you're not trying to sound that way, but its pretty evident.

No one's mind is changing here, and I've said all there is to say regarding this subject. Peace out all.

 

This is a silly argument. I'd rather die of food poisoning (any kind) than AIDS any day.

You say "while AIDS is a terrible and horrible disease" far too easily. I don't think you quite understand it.

 

Generally speaking, I'm FOR reducing the amount of prostitution and against profiting from it.

To me this would indicate either making it illegal and toughening up (entirely possible IMO since there are countries where prostitution is very low) or legalizing it and making it impossible for anyone to profit from it.

Too much emphasis is placed on money here. Money money money. I have a simple rule - would it be the same if you burned ALL the money in the world? If not, then it should be. If there was no money, prostitution wouldnt exist.

 

I didn't mention legalization or laws at all.

Prostitution has been around along time. Rahab a prostitute was blessed by God because she helped the Jewish spies that came to the city of Jericho.

I was pointing out that prostitutes need more help than regulation.

Instead of just offering a blanket make it legal and regulate it and tax it I prefer to work at the other side helping those who can live a normal life that gives them value and purpose.

I have met many prostitutes D yes, in a different way after becoming a minister) and I tried to help them return to the dignity of regaining the dream of a good life.

Prostitution is not a loving, secure, fulfulling, and meaningful life.

It is a way to make money, it leaves the prostitute with a scarred and cold heart.

We could build opium dens run by the state for hardcore addicts to die in.
We could open assisted suicide wards in hospitals for the desparately depressed in our world.

Or we could all reach out to abused, hurting, abandoned, rejected, and neglected people and create some love and hope.

I used to work with a ministry that worked for years on Montrose in Houston trying to help teen prostitutes. The ministry was called Turning Point Ministries.

The hardest thing for the ministry was to get volunteers. I think if more people really cared about prostitution alot more could have been done.

MadMax is right. If you legalize prostitution you will only increase the exploitation and profiteering of the innocent.

 

It is all barter and trade
You give me fish . . i give you sex

I would not be opposed to legalizing it
but
I would not be opposed to tougher laws on it either

it is this middle of the road crap that is annoying

Rocket River

 

And this is where I disagree, obviously. Clearly what the folks in Amsterdam have to say about this indicates otherwise...it's part of why they're now making changes.

I have a friend who works for a group that protects and frees people from the sex slave trade. My discussions with her about all this definitely color my opinion. And she tells me that Amstedam is a huge haven for the sex slave trade. That and some antecdotal stuff from articles here and there are all I have to go on that. I can understand why you'd feel that legalizing it would mean more control for the govt...and less of this crap...but it's not what I understand the reality of the situation to be.

 

did you read the huge bolded part where they acknowledge that the sex slave trade has infiltrated it? did you read judoka's article citing that about 70% of the prostitutes in Amsterdam aren't registered? did you read the part about Amsterdam making these changes because of the criminal element it's attracted? have you read other articles that talk about how people in Amsterdam are ok with this, because it brings in tourism, but don't want it anywhere near their own properties because it brings in an element that kills their property values?

I don't know about the sex slave trade in Nevada. I'll ask my friend what she knows about it.

 

It's not condescension...it's anger. I don't care how you get off sexually. Go for it. But when you have an industry that supports a slave trade, I'm gonna b**** about it. If you find that condescending, I'm sorry. But not sorry enough to stop b****ing about it. The sex slave trade is a GIGANTIC issue...one we don't even begin to have our minds around in this country. I'll b**** about any other industry that does the same. Screw Nike, too.

 

I understand AIDS fully and am not making light of it but at the same time to say that you would rather die of food poisoning particularly somethign like botulism where you die from internal bleeding in your intestinal tract is making light too. I would rather not die from either. That said an argument that goes that legal prostitutes are a danger because they aren't checked constantly ignores that nothing in our regulatory system is checked constantly. We willingly brave eating out even though restaurants aren't checked by health inspectors constantly and for an example I'm familiar with we drive across highway bridges daily even though they aren't even checked on a yearly basis.

 

Except we're not talking about having random unprotected sex with a "busy' girl. We are talking about a regulated professional.

 

Excepty they aren't ending legal prostition and in the article they emphasize they are keeping it legal just doing more to regulate it. Also as another poster noted from your own article the concern appears to not be about prostitution but about money laundering.

[rquoter]The city said there were too many of these and it believes some are used for money-laundering by drug dealers and the human traffickers who supply many of the city's prostitutes.

Asscher underlined that the city will remain true to its freewheeling reputation[/rquoter]

I have never been to Amsterdam nor have I studied the issue but going by the information that you have provided in this thread the problem sounds to me like lack of regulation and failure to enforce their own laws. Now there are many other places that have legal prostitution like NV, Australia and New Zealand and I haven't heard it leading to a huge amount of problems or anymore problems than places of similar development and governance that don't have legal prostitution. What I do know though is that prostitution exist almost universally and like prohibition or the drug trade whenever there is a legal attempt to outlaw such things the people who benefit the most are the criminals who control the black market.

 

The problem is the only way you can help a lot of these people is to give some level of legality so they aren't afraid of the law. For instance if there is an adult prostitute working in a brothel with child prostitute what incentive is there for her to come out and tell authorities that their children being used there? This is the very nature of why an underground economy breeds a host of other problems because everyone there is outside of the law so even they wanted to clean it up to a certain extent they know they are trapped.

This is exactly what I mean by externalities. The people you are trying to help you are just pushing them farther away because of the blanket prohibition they are facing.

 

Playing on the greasy food analogy further, I guess it depends on whether you trust frequenting street vendors or prefer dining in a reputable burger joint. One has an easier time of evading a hit in credibility if they do manage to serve tainted food. Furthermore, the incentives for one group to forge official documents are increased over the other (as if the common John will look for and can recognize an official license before getting it on...).

Regulation isn't always cheap, especially when public coffers are tight and sin taxes are the first thing to be proposed.

So legalizing something as illicit as prostitution doesn't mean illegal prostitution will be eliminated. At a certain point, a pragmatic politician would still have to draw an imaginary line of its benefits and public consequences/externalities.

 

I agree that legalizing prostitution won't do away with illegal prostition anymore than legal alcohal hasn't wiped out moonshiners. My argument is that it will reduce many of the externalities, sex slavery, abuse, STD's, pimps inordinately profitting, and etc.. That occur because the market is completely underground and in that case totally unregulated.

Right now the balance that it seems like a lot of law enforcement has drawn is to tolerate it to a certain degree, and it sounds like Texas and some states have laxer penalties regarding it. Under that situation prostitution has already come out of the shadows to some degree already.

 

I don't think it'll be a great panacea for the problems you mentioned given that our cultural perception of women and sex objects would be the same (price benefits versus moral premium) and illegal immigrants wouldn't be afforded the protections of regulated orostitution.

Sure, it's logistically doable, but is regulation easier to enforce?

 

Yes, "It is my body I'll do what I want!"

 

1. how are you guys reading this and entirely ignoring the HUMAN TRAFFICING part of the sentence!!!! you're joking, right?

2. you read the article...it didn't talk about enforcing existing laws. it talked about being more creative with zoning requirements.

3. i understand your point entirely..we disagree on one point of this discussion but agree on many. i think i know you well enough to know where you're coming from.