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Legalize it, regulate it and tax the fuck out of it. There are multiple reasons for this. First, there are the obvious health concerns. Legalizing and regulating prostitution would create a system where sex workers are required to be tested regularly in order to ensure that they are healthy in order to minimize the transmission of any STDs and most other unwanted problems arising from sex (pregnancy aside, of course). Second, prostitution now becomes a taxable revenue generator. Between the costs of a business license and having to declare income, prostitution will end up being a source of potential revenue for both the state and federal government. Third, from a human rights standpoint, licensing means that some of the negative impacts of prostitution, such as the use of underage women and the trafficking of children in this country, are hopefully reduced. Fourth, legalizing prostitution means less money spent combating it that can be spent elsewhere.
Using Nevada as an example, there is definitely money to be made through legalizing the sex trade. I'm not sure it's the best way of doing it, but there is enough evidence to at least suggest it's worth exploring. I'm also sure there are more reasons, but that's what comes to mind right off the top of my head.
That would mean a new generation of startups. (and more money for the financial industry)
Officially starting the countdown until "Hispanic Brothel Enetrprises, LLC" goes public.
I heard they have a great P/V ratio
Yes, it should be legal along with drugs. Leaving aside moral and political arguments, prostitution (and drugs) are done regardless of their legal status and we waste tons of money and resources policing it and incarcerating people for it and have little actual effect on stopping it. You also get it out of the black market criminal world and the crime associated with it being illegal, and you can tax it, bring it under the rule of law and regulate it. And just to assuage conservatives who hate all regulation, I'm not talking about over regulation, I'm talking about a pimp not beating the shit out of a prostitute and giving her the same workplace rights as other workers or testing for STD's or whatever they're called today. They can demand a safe workplace and if a pimp beats them they can call the cops. They could establish a market where they can choose the brothel they work for, or be a freelancer, and not have to answer to a pimp because that pimp owns them and will use physical violence to enforce their claim to the prostitute's revenue.
Same with drugs: we allow other forms of legal vice (alcohol, cigarettes, legal gambling) and people don't regularly hijack the Anheuser Busch delivery truck or walk into a liquor store to steal the liquor (they'll rob the store for money, but that's just crime and can just as likely, and probably more likely, happen at any convenience store) because if someone hijacks the beer truck or robs a liquor store, you call the cops. When someone rips off a drug dealer, they end up shooting each other and innocent people can be caught in the crossfire because if you're a drug dealer and someone rips you off you can't call the cops. We've also created a war zone in our neighbors to the south because we as a country have an insatiable appetite for drugs so they supply us and we can't regulate it because it's illegal. I don't see states of war in Bordeaux or the Scottish Highlands because we regulate the legal import of wine and Scotch. Same with gambling-look at crime directly associated with gambling in Vegas, AC or Foxwoods then compare it to what a bookie does if you don't pay him.
Just look at how Prohibition basically institutionalized organized crime in the US nearly a century ago. People are going to drink, do drugs, pay for sex and gamble regardless of their legality. We can not like it, but people have been doing all of those activities since the beginning of time (drugs are different I suppose). It's just a question if we as a society want to waste tons of money and effort fighting it and create larger societal issues doing so or accept that it is going to exist and figure out how to regulate it. Personally I don't go to hookers because I don't like the idea of paying for sex and I think it's pretty gross (no offense to those of you who like it) and I don't do heroine because it's fucking idiotic, not because hookers and heroine are illegal. I could probably figure out how to get a whore and heroine in an hour with no legal repercussions. But I don't.
Based and legalize everything-pilled. Although I'm not sure it's fair to say we waste a ton of money. It's wasted in our opinion, but there are government and corporate fat cats raking it in as a result make no mistake. The money all goes somewhere...
Also it's not conservatives who hate all regulation, you're thinking of anarchists and some libertarians. Most traditional and neoconservatives would want these things to stay banned and ratchet up the penalties for partaking in either.
I was always fond of saying that I never saw Pfizer do a drive by on Merck. Beyond bodily autonomy, it will dramatically reduce violence.
Yes.
If I bring a girl home and have sex. Everything is fine and dandy.
But suddenly, if her and I mutually consent to a financial reimbursement to her for the exchange meditated before the act, we are both criminals? It's garbage.
Victimless crimes should be legal.
As far as the regulatory and tax implications, meh, I don't see the necessity for government involvement other than how to deal with the criminal prosecution of none-paying clients. IE, when it is a rape vs stealing.
I wouldn't say prostitution is a victimless crime. It just happens to have significant under reporting of crimes associated with it.
That said, the necessity for government involvement is essential in ensuring that health standards are met. There needs to be a certain degree of oversight because if prostitution is legalized without any sort of standards and governance, then who knows what kind of potential epidemic can arise from this. Plus, health screenings serve the public and greater good because it's illegal to knowingly transmit an STD. There is a huge degree of difference between the high end escorts and the high volume providers. For a high volume provider, I doubt they are as diligent in making sure they have routine checkups and it creates a potentially hazardous situation. For the high end providers, I would not be surprised if they took the time to get tested and hold themselves to the standard they present themselves at.
And because it's relevant to this entire argument... Do you know what I am saying.
Well, I meant the actual act of prostitution, when consensual, is victimless. Obviously, there's exceptions of the escort not getting paid or the provider being underage or, as you mentioned, the purposeful deceit of not disclosing an STD.
However, as far as public health is concerned (which I believe is a good portion of your argument) you have to take for granted that, with legalization, you'd have more clients seeking out escorts. I'm not sure that would be true. I don't think non-legality of the act is what stops people from engaging the activity. (Perhaps the social stigma maybe?)
In other words, if there would be a public health epidemic as a result of legalizing prostitution, we would also be dealing with it right now even though it's illegal.
Also, like I mentioned above, and I do share your concern on this part, the "high volume" providers you speak of, if they didn't meet some sort of public health criteria, would still find a way to participate in the trade. Thus, things would end up exactly as they were before. There are still drug dealers that sell weed in Colorado and Washington.
I had this same discussion with a friend a few months ago. I used to live in Amsterdam and he still does.
In Amsterdam both are obviously legal and fairly significant industries. Not going into the views on marijuana, but he pointed out that the legalization of prostitution means prices are MUCH lower than other areas. Common prices for a prostitute in Amsterdam are between 50 and 80 Euros for up to an hour. They do not have the high-end prostitution which we have out here.
In America, a "common"/high-volume prostitute (working backpage, etc.) would charge about $250-300/hour. Someone more midrange/lower-volume would run you about $500 for one hour or $750 for two. High-end and very exclusive prostitutes (porn stars, published models, etc.) will run you between $1000-2000/hour. Condoms are standard, with the exception of some porn stars who may consider without if you can provide very recent test results from an approved facility.
In Amsterdam, the industry is regulated and condoms are used, but the health of clients is not confirmed. As we know from all the women who end up on Maury, condoms are not 100%. This means that women in Amsterdam are forced to be higher volume to earn a living wage and at higher risk for diseases. Furthermore, this puts any clients she sees before her next test at higher risk as well.
As a woman, I'm not sure I could get onboard with that. I understand it is a career and lifestyle choice, but the principle of it bothers me. I would like to see the decriminalization of prostitution for prostitutes in the States (e.g. go the way of some countries and prosecute the abusers/inappropriate marketing/johns) since it would put them in a better place to report abuses to the police. Higher-end savvy prostitutes already pay taxes and operate as a "consulting" or "entertainment" business - thus providing them proof of income so they can do things like purchase cars and property. You may have some temporary increase in tax revenue from the lower markets, but I don't think it would be worth the long-term impact.
Furthermore, the capitalist in me loves that it is the perfect definition of a "free-market economy" as it exists now.
Great points. +1
This comment reminds me of Wolf of Wall Street when they were referring the quality as "Pink sheets", "Nasdaqs", and "Blue chips".
The IRS allows T&A, it's fine.
Should be illegal. read the bible moran
Valid point, but has the Flying Spaghetti Monster, the one true God, made a ruling on this practice yet, in all of his noodley goodness??
Dingdong08 pretty much summed up my thoughts.
Contrast these two scenarios: 1. I take someone out for drinks and dinner and spend a couple hundred bucks. We have sex afterwards.
Am I missing something? Is there an actual argument for having prostitution be illegal other than 'the Bible says it's bad'?
Actually, yes. Places where prostitution is legal generally have higher rates of sex trafficking and sex slavery. If sex trafficking of children and slavery of women were punishable by death (and the sentence routinely handed out) then I would be on board with legalizing prostitution. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court (and one unnamed political party) doesn't allow (or support) capital punishment for crimes that don't involve murder or treason.
For me, the statistics with regard to sex trafficking are so damning among countries where prostitution is legal that I simply find legalization to not be worth it. In this case, I don't believe that one person's freedom is worth another person's (literal) enslavement.
FD: I'm in the south, so I've heard the bible argument.
I am all for the gummint keeping its nose out of these things. I don't think they're sins, but the bible does, I say let 'em sin. most of the bible totin nascar fans poison themselves with KFC macdonalls bud heavy and marlboro red anyway, yet when someone wants to abort a mistake, roll a joint, or get a hooker, all of a sudden it's sinful. when I first met some of these people (I come from a pretty socially liberal family), my mind was blown, but most native southerners are like this, and it's unfortunate. racism has abated in the metro areas, shiite protestantism has a ways to go.
biggest hypocrites in the world: republican southerners. they want less regulation and lower taxes, yet the want the gummint to spend money regulating "sinful" things just because they interpret the bible in a fucked up way. listen, I'm a christian, but the bible is not an instruction manual, it's a storybook. separate church & state, and if they don't like it, they can fuck right off. legalize it all, just because it's legal doesn't mean it's an endorsement, like the KKK. the gov't protects their freedom of speech, but that doesn't qualify as an endorsement.
PS - agree 100% with what Dingdong08 said
I'm not sure. The problem is there is a HUGE incentive for pimps legal or not to coerce women into prostitution. Human trafficking is a LOT more prolific than you might think and it's alive and well in countries that have legalized sex industries, which isn't to say that isn't alive and well in countries where it isn't legal. In principle, two consenting adults should be able to set whatever terms they want for sex. The reality is you will never know whether or not you're paying someone who is being forced into it, and with that understanding, do you really want to fund those m'fers? I can't really imagine a robust regulator that's actually feasible.
I agree with being not sure, it is a tough issue. As convincing as some of the arguments above are with respect to regulation, prostitution is already legal in parts of Nevada in the form of licensed brothels and 90% of Nevada's prostitution revenue comes from illegal activity outside the brothels. On the other hand, two people should be free to do whatever they want as long as they're not harming anyone. Legalizing and regulating could decrease aggregate STD cases and bring in revenue through taxation, but at the same time make trafficking and coercion more prevalent. All things considered I think it probably makes more sense to legalize it but make the penalties for illegal activity more severe
I agree with both of the above statements but think that if the entire U.S. made it legal it would be a different scenario (also realizing that would be difficult because states, counties and municipalities can determine what they want, so I suppose this is more in theory than practice so it's all mental masturbation).
With regard to Nevada the problems is that prostitution is legal but not in the two places that most people live and that nearly all people visit-Clark and Washoe Counties, Vegas and Reno. So while some horndog Vegas conventioneer can theoretically drive or take a sponsored transport out to a legal brothel, in his inebriated state he's most likely going to get a girl in Vegas through the nearly infinite illegal means of doing so. So legalization in Nevada isn't a great indicator because you literally have to travel to the middle of the desert to legally pay for sex. Just ask Lamar Odom (too soon?).
Sex trafficking is a huge problem also but I think if a massive, and geographically isolated and difficult to enter country like the US legalized it there could be a better use of enforcement dollars. I'm not intimately knowledgeable about the sex trade but I think about the stories I've read about the decent percentage of prostitutes in the Netherlands being sex slaves and victims of trafficking because of the small size of the country and the open borders. And they're the girls standing in the windows of the red light district in broad daylight, or streetlights at least. We don't have an eu open border policy so even though women can be smuggled in here (and we don't have rock solid borders), it wouldn't be anywhere near as easy as getting Romanian girls into Amsterdam. So instead of using the limited resources we assign to policing the overarching umbrella we define as sex crimes to policing and prosecuting two consentual adults exchanging currency for oral sex, we can use those wasted dollars to prevent stealing young women from anywhere and forcing them into a god awful existence
The regulation of it would be difficult and not perfect at first but it would evolve and I'd like to think eventually get better than pimps beating the shit out of their girls. I'm sure when establishments that served food were first regulated it was a difficult transition that didn't work well but now I can get a cheeseburger with a near 100% chance I'm not going to get sick and that the people making my burger and fries aren't being abused.
Morally I'm against it.
But prostitution is legal in Australia, it's regulated, and there doesn't seem to be that much news on it (I've rarely ever seen a story about something going wrong in mainstream media).
So can a society operate with it being legal? Yes. Is it good for the long-term health of society? Well it's already happening illegally in the US - so better to regulate it. Is it the same as drugs? Not really - Drugs are a good that can be moved, for prostitution you need 'people' so I'd argue that on the basis of enforcing standards/regulation - you're looking at a far better chance of it complying with standards than drugs.
Regardless, society is changing - stigmas that once attached to sexual orientation, gender-identity, the definition of marriage, role of women in society etc - all have been challenged from what they traditionally were. I'd argue that there still may be some more change to come on the actual 'sex' front.
Yes, it should be legal. It's just sex.
Legalize all drugs and prostitution! How has no serious Presidential candidate never tried this before? It'd be a landslide election.
Increased mental health? I doubt the emotional trauma hookers experience is primarily caused by breaking laws. Also, decriminalization is bullshit. Firstly, too many syllables. Too. Many. Fucking. Syllables. In that word. So, you're going to maintain a law, but as a society agree that it's a bullshit law and therefore choose not to pursue it? So why not get rid of the law?
Just finished reading Steinbeck's East of Eden which deals a bit with brothels in a California town right around the turn of the 20th century.
Steinbeck's commentary on it was interesting that prostitution was actually accepted and well-regarded amongst wives of the men soliciting the brothel's service as it was seen as a way for a man to get his sexual aggression out without having to explicitly cheat on his wife.
Just got back from Pompei in Italy and the brothel was one of the most esteemed and central parts of their town and society.
I wonder if the amount of rape, cheating, divorce would go down if prostitution were once again legalized.
America is the greatest country in the world.
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am up for it. Most of criminal activities are funded by prostitution and drugs. So, by legalizing these two you wil cut a lott of money that is going to these criminal organization and you prevent girls and minors to be forced to be prostitutes. For the rest, they would pay taxes and they will go through medical checks
I think so.
I absolutely agree with you.
I think legalization will help.
I absolutely agree with you. It is a rather acute and debatable issue that needs to be studied and discussed. On the page https://graduateway.com/essay-examples/human-trafficking/ I recently read quite a few constructive articles about human trafficking and it seems to me that after the legalization of prostitution, this problem can be minimized.
Cool!
Studies show that if prostitution gets legalized, sex trafficking increases. Just providing an additional point
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