Should prostitution be legalized?

[LostInAnomie]

Well?

[tuvor]

1. Yup.

[Floogeldy]

3. I'm afraid so.

:)

[asthmaticeog]

2. Yes.

To paraphrase George Carlin: "Selling is legal. Fucking is legal. Why isn't selling fucking legal?"

[Syrinx]

11. I thought of Carlin too

He said something like "Sex is the only thing in the world that is perfectly legal to give away, but illegal to sell."

[dave123williams]

16. That's not what carlin said...

He said, "Fucking is legal. Selling is legal. Why isn't selling fucking legal?"

[Syrinx]

22. I stand corrected

:D

[lildreamer316]

4. Yes. n/t

[Heidi]

5. Yes.

Everybody's gotta make a livin'.

[Fox Mulder]

6. Absolutely.

[Oeditpus Rex]

7. Certainly

If marijuana were legalized at the same time, we could buy reefer at cathouses. :bounce:

[billyskank]

9. That's joined up thinking

:thumbsup:

[Heidi]

17. And value-added marketing!

:thumbsup:

[Lilyhoney]

8. Only if it is unionized. nt

[noonwitch]

28. Yeah, but do you know what would end up happening?

The purpose of the union would be to keep the pimps out of it. The pimps would just take over the union, especially if the working girls and boys union became part of an older, established union with mob ties.

[leftofthedial]

10. not only that, it should be unionized

and state-supported

[NMMNG]

12. Yes

Some interesting data:

snip

When we examine sex as a trade, the combination of philosophy, cultural precedence, religious influence and politics made each country select how to handle it in its own way. In Singapore, sex for money is open and commonplace. Denmark women can be legal prostitutes so long as it is not their sole means of income. Canada, France and Mexico allow it. Prostitutes must be contained within brothels in the Netherlands, unlike within England and Wales where prostitution is limited to individual providers. Israel, the historical stage for the Bible, allows it, too. Meanwhile, the United States has made prostitution illegal (misdemeanor) in all states, except certain counties of Nevada

snip

It is unknown if there is a correlation between laws that prohibit sex and higher crime rates, but the reverse appears to be more enlightening. The countries where prostitution is legal do not suffer from a high number of violent crimes. It appears legalized prostitution does not make societies more of a crime hazard. Contrary to the prohibitionist's philosophy, this data may give reason to implement and regulate prostitution to reduce crime because crime in countries where prostitution is legal is lower than the U.S.'s rates.

snip

The United States is tied at first place with the U.K. when it comes to the number of people per capita who live with HIV/AIDS. In Israel, where prostitution is legal, they suffer from nearly an eighth of the U.S.'s number. The U.K. aside, legal prostitution does not appear to have a negative impact on the spread of HIV/AIDS. In fact, there is evidence to support the positive effects of legalizing prostitution on the spread of HIV/AIDS.

snip

If we compare divorce rates between countries, we will understand the success of institutional monogamy under different social conditions. The United States is second highest, with eight times the divorces as Mexico, twice as many as Canada and 55% more than Denmark. It is clear that the U.S. has a high turnover rate. Meanwhile, most countries with legal prostitution have less of a problem with institutional monogamy.

Much, much more: http://www.liberator.net/articles/prostitution.html

[Vidar]

13. Yes

[tibbir]

14. Sure.

[Robeson]

15. Yes.

[khashka]

18. Absolutely.

I might be biased because I used to be a prostitute..... but actually working in the field..... many of the problems of prostitution are caused by its illegality.

And it's silly! You can fuck for free but you can't be paid for it?

And what about the customers? Sure a lot of them just want a qick blowjob. But what about the disabled, the unattractrive, the people too stressed out or overworked to find a partner? Are they not entitled to some sexual satisfaction as well?

Khash.

[Burma Jones]

19. Yes

[Deja Q]

20. You're not going to want to read this.

Deprived people do depraved things, or so I've been told.

Legalize it. It may be as discompassionate and uncaring as any other form of business, and you can also imagine the telemarketers who'd call, but at least people get to do it.

[dysfunctional press]

21. without a doubt, YES.

nt

[Quantess]

23. Sad truth is, yes.

Some people are too romantically dysfunctional to be in a real relationship. Romantically dysfunctional women go without sex. Romantically dysfunctional men don't like to go without sex, so they get it from a prostitute.

Sad but true.

[Wetzelbill]

24. yes, unfortunately it's the only way to regulate the industry

otherwise women will continue to be subjected to pimps and extremely harsh and dangerous situations. The way it is now drugs, disease and danger are prevalent. In brothels women can be regularly tested and cared for, and they don't have to worry about being abused by a sexual predator. Serial killers and sexual predators prey on these women, as do dominant males like pimps, and that to me is something we cannot condone as a moral society. Do I approve of prostitution? No, of course not. But it exists, and always will exist, so it should be observed and regulated for safety reasons.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

25. Hey! if it was, I would be able to pay my share of the bills...

while doing something I'm good at! :evilgrin:

[CanuckAmok]

26. An interesting effect of legalised prostitution....

There has been quite a bit of research into this (and, of course, we in Canada have legalised prostitution.... sort of).

I read (most of) the results of a long-term study conducted in Holland in the 80s.

One of the effects of full-on legalisation is that the income of prostitutes is drastically reduced.

As it is legalised, competition among existing prostitutes increases, resulting in lowering prices in order to remain competitive. Also, legalisation tends to influence public opinion on prostitution, and many women who may not have gone into it when it was illegal decide to make it work once it's (relatively) penalty-free. The end result, of course, an increase in the number of competitors. Also, as it's legalised, there are taxes, permit fees, mandatory health inspections, licenses, etc, which must be paid for by the worker. Even in Vancouver, there's an "escort license", which costs $300/year. Surprisingly, as prostitution is in the grey area of criminalisation, the City hasn't sold a single license, ever.

In Holland, for example, the shop windows the hookers use are actually owned by someone else, and they rent the space to the hooker. As competition increases, there's more importance on having a "good" window (lots of pedestrian traffic), and the hookers pay through the nose for a good window. The study I read showed an average reduction in hourly income from around $100/hr to nearly minimum wage.


My $0.02 on legalisation is that selling sex is going to happen anyway, but the government should not be proactively endorsing an activity that has been proven to be emotionally and physically damaging to the workers, the johns, and their families, and costly, financially, to the community.

There's no such thing as a "happy hooker".

But I also believe that hookers making above a certain fixed amount should pay tax on their income. I know of at least one callgirl in Vancouver who makes about $150,000 a year, and doesn't pay a dime of tax on it. Actually, she didn't pay a dime of tax on it until she was caught by RevCan last year and audited into the stoneage. And penalised for not submitting GST.

[alittlelark]

27. Yes, and regulated, and have healthcare,

Guys can get what they think they need, Providers can make $ to support themselves/kids, and the gov't can tax it all and utilize the $ for mitigation/education of the providers.

It's a WIN-WIN.