If you're a fan of Firefly, you probably wish you were "cool" enough to know Inara, the "registered Companion", well without having to pay her. Just like you might imagine being significant in the life of some incredible mistress of the stripper's pole.

Though I imagine it might be a terrible thing to know so much of people - who presumably reveal so much need and so much else of their lives to someone they know so intimately, yet not closely - I find myself sympathetic to people on both sides of the "deal".

This whole issue is an unintended consequence of following the moral codes of Christianity et al. Although they have the laudable goal of eliminating promiscuity and the resultant loss of fidelity, as well as limiting the spread of some diseases, such codes have locked millions into unwanted relationships - in part, producing this scandal.

This whole issue is an unintended consequence of following the moral codes of Christianity et al. Although they have the laudable goal of eliminating promiscuity and the resultant loss of fidelity, as well as limiting the spread of some diseases, such codes have locked millions into unwanted relationships - in part, producing this scandal.

Right?? They try and try and try, but no matter how hard you try, you still cannot legislate morality - it's like trying to enforce everyone to think the same way about the same things, it just can't be done! I don't understand why people don't get it. o_O

Prostitution laws come down to simple economics. If the supply of sex for men is increased, it decreases the price of sex, and thus devalues a wife's "assets" and the amount of control she wields over her husband. Society makes prostitution illegal in order to prop up "decent" women's profit from sex -- and to promote men's willingness to yoke themselves to a permanent relationship. As society sees it, prostitution makes sex just too cheap for men -- they should be forced to pay a LOT more than the professionals charge.

These days, with non-professional women giving away sex so readily and plentifully, the monopoly has almost completely broken down, so I am surprised that the professionals can still make a living ... .

What timing. One of our local "alternative" papers just wrote a story about Ohio's new "John School." Using scare tactics in "an effort to curb the demand side of prostitution."

I've never hired a prostitute. I've also never been to a strip club. However, a few of my friends worked their way through college working "gentleman's clubs" (that term still amuses me). It didn't bother me, nor did I think it should be illegal. No one forced them, it's their body, and they're all consenting adults. What's the issue?

What surprises me is that our nation's lawmakers, no paragons of virtue themselves, have made [insert vice here] illegal. I believe :-) that they do it to pander to their constituencies while smugly assuming (as Spitzer did) that they won't get caught. Arrogance is not necessarily a bad thing, but it doesn't play well with the public.

Politicians are politicians, so they won't stand up for getting rid of laws on prostitution or legalizing drug use.

I could walk out my door, walk two blocks, and buy a joint from any number of characters at the local coffee shop. Because I can doesn't mean I do. I don't smoke pot, but if you want to, and you don't toke and drive, I really don't have any problem with it.

Furthermore, if pot use were legal, more people would be using vaporizers to inhale it, which removes the unhealthy aspects of smoking it.

Furthermore, if pot use were legal, more people would be using vaporizers to inhale it, which removes the unhealthy aspects of smoking it.

Prisons would also be less crowded, because the ones who got caught toking wouldn't be in there.

I think that with the regulating of brothels, society would be safer, health-wise. We could mandate monthly or even weekly testing of prostitutes. Around here, most of the prostitution I see is about drugs: people who need drugs give it up for people who have drugs, not necessarily money. Even if it were legalized, I still think this type of illegal prostitution would continue.

These days, with non-professional women giving away sex so readily and plentifully, the monopoly has almost completely broken down, so I am surprised that the professionals can still make a living ... .

I'd say these days it's not so much than men pay women to have sex with them...it's that they pay women to have sex with them and then go away. No talk about feelings, or how to define their "relationship." It has become a lot easier to get nonmarital sex...but that nonmarital sex comes with strings of its own. Some men want to avoid dealing with that to the point where they're willing to pay to do so.

(Yes, I know that not all prostitution is hetero, but I'm willing to bet that men paying for women makes up the majority of prostitution transactions by far, at least in the U.S. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.)

Hey, I gotta throw the "consistency flag" again.

If you want to enjoy the pleasures of a sex worker or your local cannabis vendor, you must state out loud that there is no "free lunch", and that you either assume the risks yourself or you must apply the same protection mechanisms you enjoy in existing consumer law.

To sum up: pot, like tobacco and other drugs, is harmful, even as it pleases the user. Promiscuity spreads disease. And the hooker, sad as it is for me to say this, is only as clean as her last customer. Next week's test might limit the outbreak, but get this: only if the customers are identified. Yikes!

"I still think this type of illegal prostitution would continue."

kg,

Prohibition ended. Yes, there are still today people that make their own alcohol and sell it illegally. But how many? It reduced considerably (and the other crime that went with it) when it prohibition ended and the black market for alcohol became far less profitable.

So, while there might still be some of the type you describe afterwards, I think it'd still be reduced after legalization because it wouldn't be nearly as profitable to those who run it. Like any other black-market activity, it's motivated more by profit than anything else. Heck, if it happened throughout all of the states, you'd even have franchised prostitution. "Welcome to McBlowjobs, would you like a side of buttsex with that?" "Mom and Pop" prostitution rings can't compete with that.

Moot point I guess, since it's about as likely as legalized marijuana, affirming gays right to marriage through secular channels, and in general getting laws out of people's bodies and private lives.

Flynne, "can't legislate morality"??? What exactly do you think laws are?

Oh, but it is different when it comes to victimless crimes. I get it. I'm sure, however, that you realize that morality differs between people. In fact, there are lots of people in this world willing to kill a woman for not dressing correctly. How naive are you?

As for prostitution, it should totally be illegal, and furthermore, I would like to see a bit less sympathy for chicks who easily make their living on their back, while the rest of us have to work, raise kids, and worry about our husbands becoming johns. No sympathy.

If you want to enjoy the pleasures of a sex worker or your local cannabis vendor, you must state out loud that there is no "free lunch", and that you either assume the risks yourself or you must apply the same protection mechanisms you enjoy in existing consumer law.

I'm fine with that, and I don't know why anyone WOULD have trouble with applying "the same protection mechanisms you enjoy in existing consumer law."
I see current Government practices easily moving over into this role (if they'd ever legalize any of it). They regulate safety and emission standards of automobiles. They maintain standards on the distribution and sale of alcohol.

They could easily mandate than commercial cannabis meet specific health standards, as well as commercial (McBlowjob) prostitutes. I don't see that as invading private lives (because it's a commercial-to-consumer business transaction), not legislating morality, and as benefiting the public good. Taxation of those practices would be used to fund the process and you wouldn't be spending as many tax dollars filling the prisons. Is there a downside to that?

re: "there is no free lunch"

Uh, I don't think you get too far with hookers with "Blow me, and I'm not paying you a dime."

Liz, it's up to you to see to it that you know who you're marrying, instead of prohibiting prostitution for all so you don't have to look too closely. If some girls want to make their living on their backs, why should you get a say in it?

A good book for anybody who's in the habit of just closing their eyes and hoping everything turns out okay, Nathaniel Branden's "The Art Of Living Consciously."

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684838494?ie=UTF8&tag=advicegoddess-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0684838494

They try to legislate morality by making it difficult to do certain things, but clearly laws don't prevent people from acting immorally (if you presume that hiring a protitute is immoral). They punish you if you get caught, but do nothing to actually create morality.

I don't avoid killing people because its illegal, but because its part of my own moral code. Please don't brush off my 40 years of observation, introspection and decision making by suggesting that the government makes me moral!

"while the rest of us have to work, raise kids, and worry about our husbands becoming johns"

Well then quit doing it.

Radwaste -

No free lunch how? If prostitution were legal, it would be taxed and regulated like any other industry. Same with legalized drugs.

Liz -

Why the problem with legal prostitution? I suppose that if your really basing it on making an easy living, you're also against people getting paid for such silliness as playing video games or just having uber rich parents too?

I'll second Amy, if your concerned about your husband visiting a hooker, maybe there are larger problems at work than prostitution. You married him, why should the rest of us have to bow to your insecurities about the man you chose to marry? Sorry, but it is not societies responsibility to legislate cover for your bad choices.

RE; Prostitution

There was a time that I actually considered it myself (back when I was a pretty boy). I like Teh Sex and was not really far from whoring anyways. Hitchhiking around the country, I didn't actually have a place to live. Most nights I slept indoors, I was sexing someone. At the least this meant a place to get cleaned up, usually some kind of meal and a place to sleep - and of course I'd also get laid, what could be better?

I also tried the gigolo routine. Having been raised by decent parents, I am pretty capable of mingling with "proper" folks. Having been a pretty boy, I was attractive enough to wealthy, rather older women (I was eighteen, they were in their forties, at that time of life they were older women). Unfortunately, I really didn't care for the jet set crowd in southern Florida, so that was a wash. It was kind of fun while it lasted though.

Unfortunately, the only prevalent options for whoring myself in St Louis, would have been getting paid to let fat, smelly old men blow me. I then discovered that I could actually make really good money stripping and did that for a month, before the fat, smelly old men started catching on that I wasn't taking any of them up on extraneous interludes (nor was my friend Jason, also a pretty boy). Then suddenly there were no more large bills coming at either of us.

Now I am duly partnered, raising a family and running a small business (that does not involve Teh Sex). I have gotten over the urge to whore. But that really shouldn't matter. Just who the fuck are any of you, to tell me that I can't sell my cock? I mean the market might not let me work that field, but if it would and I wanted to, what the fuck business is it of anyone else? As long as I am clean, safe and paying my taxes, it really is nobodies business but mine, my johns and my bosses, if I have one.

Hilarious post, DuWayne - I agree with it, though. If some single, nerdy programmer geek wants to go out and pay for NSA sex occasionally instead of bothering with the dating game, and a woman is willing to provide this for pay, what's wrong with that? Why should we throw either of them in jail just because of some silly, insecure housewives who have put on a hundred pounds and stopped having sex with their husbands? Maybe those dysfunctional marriages are what is "wrong with society" (sticking pinky finger in the air) and not the choices of a couple of self-knowledgeable, consenting adults.

Pirate Jo -

It's not just for nerdy programmers who want to avoid the dating game. There are a lot of hard-core professionals, usually workaholics, who have no time or inclination for traditional dating. Men and women, many of them reasonably attractive on a number of fronts, some of them quite physically attractive too. Quite a few of them want more than just sex, they want someone who will occasionally be their significant other, on their schedule and for pay. There is a very good reason that at the really high end, prostitution is about a lot more than mere fucking.

A contractor whom I worked for years ago, was/is? a prostitute kind of guy. He worked anywheres from sixty, to eighty hours a week, I swear he probably dreamed of the jobs he was running. When he set up dates with the handful of prostitutes he used, he would pay them extra, so he could take them to dinner and possibly a movie. He did this at least twice a week, I would guess occasionally more. He was a decent enough looking guy and he made a ton of money in high-end remodels and building. But he had no interest in the excess baggage of an actual relationship and worked too much to really make one work if he wanted one. Prostitutes provided him with a solution that didn't involve wasting a lot of time trying to pick up babes for one nighters. He got to spend time with women who at least pretended to like him and as the girls he used were very regular, I imagine that some, if not all of them, really did like him - he's very decent folk.

I think it would probably be surprising, how many people who have nothing really going against them on the dating front, still choose prostitutes.

Amy - and anyone else - the "no free lunch" part has nothing to do with the act, and everything to do with infrastructure and consequences.

Arsenic in your pot? You're out of luck, compensationwise, unless you can show where it came from. Chlamydia? Show your receipt.

If you want these things legalized, the logical place to start is in showing how public health is enhanced. That means the objective collection of pros and cons for each activity and substance. This should be simple for non-religious and rational people, whether your goal is to be a consumer or provider of such services.

I suggest that the first irrational notion to discard is that a law should be void merely because people break it; proceed, if you will, from there.

I'm sorry Radwaste, the fact that the law is currently prohibition is absolutely incidental. You are the one who is asking the government to restrict my rights, so you show me how restricting my rights this way is a reasonable proposition.

I will however bite.

Prostitution has not caused the sky to fall or horror to be struck, in portions of Nevada where it is legal. While there seems to be no significantly higher rate of prostitution in those areas, than there is in large urban centers where it is actually illegal, it is a damn sight safer for everyone involved.

Because it is legal, prostitution is regulated. Prostitutes are required to have VD testing and they are also legally obligated to use a condom. I would imagine that in most (I know it's the case in the house someone I know worked in), if not all legal brothels also make this a strict rule, for liability reasons.

Because it is legal, security isn't a problem in legal brothels. Indeed, state regulations require a certain level of security. Many brothels are happy to go beyond what's legally required, again for liability reasons. Legit prostitutes don't get their asses kicked.

And legal prostitution reduces the number of women who get into it due to substance abuse or horrible trauma in their lives. The primary motivations for legal prostitution, are a liking for the sex and a "healthy" dose of narcissism. It's an easy and relatively safe way for women (and men) to make what they need to get through school and the hours aren't usually very rough.

Illegal prostitution OTOH, presents a host of horrible problems that are impossible to solve, due to the illicit nature of the act. It is hard to have consistent, safe security. The "protection" is often worse than that which they are protecting the prostitute from. Illegal prostitutes are easy pickings for exploitation. Illegal prostitutes are far more likely not to use condoms, or allow bareback for extra money. Illegal prostitutes are also far more likely to be beaten and/or killed and/or robbed. Illegal prostitutes are less likely to get regular VD testing.

When frequenting an illegal prostitute, a john is more likely to end up getting beaten and/or killed and/or robbed. When frequenting an illegal prostitute, a john is more likely to end up with a disease.

Making it illegal not only doesn't stop it, it doesn't seem to even put a dent in it. Making it legal is unlikely to really make it increase by much, all it will do is make it safer for everyone involved. Involved in an activity that is only illegal, because money exchanges hands. It is totally legal for me to go out and fuck six or seven women and/or men tonight, if I wanted to and they consented. In my younger days, that wouldn't have been much of an exaggeration at times either.

My sexual activities, were not a whole lot different than those of a whore's. Hell, a lot of the time I was getting more than just the sex out of the deal. There is simply no way to argue that if the state has an interest (other than taxes) in restricting the right to have sex for money, then it has the same interest in further regulating sex, especially out of wedlock sex.

And why should it have to enhance public health, though I think it's very obvious that it would certainly do that over the status quo. The vast majority of junk food not only doesn't enhance public health, it is counterintuitive to public health, yet it's legal. Alcohol is a significant public health problem, yet it's legal. Guns are another public health problem, yet they too are legal.

It is all about whether or not the harm to public health is significant enough to justify restricting the rights of consenting adults. It is also about harm reduction, through regulation. There is ample evidence from places where prostitution is legal, that being legal makes it exponentially safer for everyone involved. There is ample evidence from places where it is illegal, that being illegal carries absolutely no advantages, including a reduction in the incidence of prostitution. All that the evidence from places where it is illegal suggests, is that it becomes far more dangerous to everyone involved, on a multitude of levels.

I won't even start on drugs, this is plenty long as it is.

Oh, but it is different when it comes to victimless crimes. I get it. I'm sure, however, that you realize that morality differs between people. In fact, there are lots of people in this world willing to kill a woman for not dressing correctly. How naive are you? - liz

Well liz murder, robbery, assult, these thing affect society as a whole. Someone kills one of my employees I have to spend money to hire and train a new guy, the nsurance company pays out his insurance claim causng rates to go up. Thousands of tax dollars are spent investigating the crime, and in the event of a conviction hunndereds of thousands are spent on jailing the criminal.

Someone sleeps with a prostitute - who cares

As for prostitution, it should totally be illegal, and furthermore, I would like to see a bit less sympathy for chicks who easily make their living on their back, while the rest of us have to work, raise kids, and worry about our husbands becoming johns. No sympathy.

You may as well make adultery a crime as well then, and let me ask you what is the differecne in gevinv a woman cash for sex as opposed to taking her out regularly and spending the equivelent money on goods nd services for her?

Also perhaps if you had sex with your husbands on a frequent basis, say onece a week - if not 2 or 3 times - and didnt treat them like crap, they just might not go looking for attention elsewhere

"You are the one who is asking the government to restrict my rights, so ..."

Well, for the third time, no.

What I am saying is exactly the same thing I'm saying for any ability you wish to exercise, whether you call it a right or not: if you want the protection of consumer law, you must do certain things. You will pay for clean drugs and clean sex and everything else that gets tacked on, and then sometimes you will be exposed anyway because of inspection shortcuts or malfeasance of office. Again: go right ahead and generate the study that shows all the benefits of what you want to do.

One thing that is often overlooked by people favoring the legalization of prostitution, is that there are moral issues involved. I myself believe it should be legalized, and am not a conservative or religious person. But it is not simply a matter of legality or practicality.

Prostitution is an inherently dirty business. It tends to attract women who are of low value to society and have little sense of self-worth. They often either become prostitutes to support a drug habit, or develope an addiction once they become prostitutes. Many of them take advantage of the customer, for example by robbing him, or reneging on part of the deal after money has exchanged hands. The customer has no recourse if she ends the encounter early.

Having sex with a complete stranger is shakey. One has not had the chance to meet first a few times, and get a good sense of the other person.
A customer who beds with a prostitute often has a low opinion of himself, due to his inability to obtain sex through the usual means. He frequently thinks he is connecting with a woman by being with a prostitute, but when his time is up he realizes that was illusory. This further reduces his self-esteem.

Good points Norman. Prostitution is an ugly, exploitative business and I don't think that legalizing it will be a panacea. The pro-legalizing crowd think that passing a law will somehow magically make the diseases, abusive customers, greedy pimps and coercive 'recruitment' practices go away, but I doubt it will change anything.

There was a documentary on MSNBC recently about 'Sex Slaves' and they showed the horrendous abuse of vulnerable young women. A lot of the women forced into prostitution work in the Netherlands where prostitution is legal. If anything, their plight was worse because they couldn't turn to the law to punish the men who abused them.

I keep hearing about these alleged high class hookers who look like supermodels, working their way through an Ivy League school and are treated like princesses by their johns - who all look like Richard Gere, but I doubt they exist, or if they do, they're a tiny minority of sex workers. The ones I see on the street and outside the red-light district are the most miserable people I've ever seen.

Amy, if you think whoring is such a great career choice, why didn't you turn to that when you were young and poor instead of working as a mover?