See this is a clear sign that the economy is not as bad as people say it is. Prostitutes can afford cars.....Bush should be proud.

My My a little raunchy this morning.

This is the funniest thing I have read in a while. Great way to start the morning, Lat.

So presumably two gas cards would get you tailpipe?

Classy! If either of them were a minority, we'd be up to 178 comments by now.

How many hummers to fill up a Hummer?

I still don't see any reason for prostitution to be illegal. Sex is no longer connected with love, marriage, or even procreation. You wanna pay to screw? Pay to screw. The government shouldn't be involved.

In the words of the late, great George Carlin:

"Screwing is legal. Selling is legal. So why isn't selling screwing legal?"

He of course used a somewhat earthier term. But nobody's ever given him (or me) a good answer yet.

M

Here here 9:50. It's ultimately an empty and unsatisfying experience, but if you want to do it, I don't see why you shouldn't be able to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3RjJYaZI0o

In related news...

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/30/national/main4219052.shtml

You idiots!! It makes no sense to say that this story show that gar prices are out of control. Her $100 gas card is losing value by the day the same way as if she got a crisp Franklin!!!

Now, if she'd traded her services for GAS, that would be a story.

Here's why prostitution can't be legal: Trafficking of sex workers. You all think about the willing participants - the Sptizer-esque prostitute who clearly has choices and decides to make money in the oldest profession. Many women/girls and some men/boys are either sold or traded into prostitution through illegal trafficking in human beings, which goes on a lot more than you think. Read more about it here: http://www.humantrafficking.org/

*gasp*

10:21: You're right! Why, if prostitution weren't illegal, unmonitored, and stigmatized, people might do bad things to prostitutes! Fortunately, since it is all those things, I'm sure everything is fine.

Except in Nevada... there's just hundreds of women locked in little rooms there. If only they were medically monitored by the state, or controlled their own prices, or could leave whenever they wanted! It's heartbreaking, really.

10:21, You are a shiny, crisp idiot. By your logic, all sweaters should also be illegal, because some of the people who make them are sitting in sweatshops against their will.

Kidnapping and human trafficking are already illegal. We can keep it that way. Indeed, by legalizing prostitution, we can focus law enforcement efforts on the industry's pernicious side-effects, such as trafficking. We can leave idiot 20 year olds who party with hedge fund managers for $5k a night well enough alone...

10:25, you're missing the point. I agree, that people who choose to do it should do it, and it would be better for them as well as better for everyone else. The problem is that legalizing prostitution would increase the profit motive of people who force others into the sex trade. Legalizing prostitution would increase outlets for those who are profiting from others' participation in the sex industry.

give 10:21 a break. His argument is just part of the public policy argument. Although its easy to say "yea prostitution is great lets go why not." It ends up being a totally different story when it happens in your back yard. Prostitution attracts low lives, and all sorts of other condemned activities. It's similar to the drug situation, theres good reasons to legalize and good reasons to keep them illegal. It is not an argument that has one right side.

10:41,

I respectfully disagree. There are 5 massage parlors within a few blocks of my midtown office building. The neighborhood, while perfectly beshitted with tourists, is no worse off for having some hos doing their thing.

Anyway, lots of legitimate professions attract lowlives. That can't be reason enough for a ban. Legalizing also allows for containment within a particular geographic area, a la Hamsterdam on "The Wire." (Yes, I just cited The Wire).

Take home point: the knee-jerk reaction to ban - not regulate, not control - but BAN things you don't like, is sort of infuriatingly socialist...

Ban things you don't like? Really? You're a lawyer, and that's your interpretation of this discussion? Yikes.

How can you tell which massage parlors offer "extra" services and which don't? And how do you broach the subject once inside?

Well, yeah, it is my interpretation, actually. I believe that to ban an activity in which people willingly engage, you need very strong justification, such justification not present in the case of prostitution.

Regulation runs the gamut from complete laissez faire to a complete ban. Prostitution should fall somewhere in the middle of the scale - more like short sales than murder - so to speak.

"How can you tell which massage parlors offer "extra" services and which don't?"

I haven't been to one in about 8 years, but it's still a very safe assumption that they all do. Also, don't you have any asshole friends in finance to tell you about such things?

this belongs in the atl hall of fame!

10:21/10:41

Can you provide data showing higher rates of human trafficking in countries which have legal prostitution versus countries that do not?

10:39: Another brilliant insight! It makes so much sense that making a broadly available and highly-demanded product illegal would decrease profits and motive to provide it. Why, I'll bet if we examined the historical record, we wouldn't find ANY cases of a legal product becoming illegal and then becoming the center of massive criminal enterprises. And we'd never, EVER find a case where such a product was made legal again and such criminal activity refocused on other still-illegal products.

I think the standard line is "You don't pay for sex, you just pay for her time. What happens between two adults during that time is their business."

blah blah blah this is not an offer for prostitution blah blah

VMonkey

12:33 - fixed your post

"You don't pay for sex, you just pay for her to leave when it's over."

10:47,

I apologize, I was only speaking of corner of the street type of prostitution. The massage parlor prostitution i guess is a whole different story. I will say however that the main point of my post was that issues such as prostitution are always going to have 2 sides that make good arguments. It is hard to come down on one side on these types of issues. Definitely not something I would try to accomplish on an internet blog.

-10:41

6:29:

What the Hell do you think the Internet is FOR? Of COURSE we're going to fix everything with our debate here. From this discussion, right to the floor of the legislature. I mean, it's worked so well for the abortion and evolution debates - those are pretty much all wrapped up, thanks to tireless Internet advocacy.

And also of course, the anti-free-market types are getting royally spanked. God Bless Capitalism! God Bless Freedom! And Happy Independence Day!