Should Sex Work Be Legal?

[phattonez]

No it didn't. All it did was just criminalize alcohol usage. The rates of drinking alcohol stayed the same.

That's patently false.

National Prohibition succeeded both in lowering consumption and in retaining political support until the onset of the Great Depression altered voters’ priorities.

Did Prohibition Really Work? Alcohol Prohibition as a Public Health Innovation

 

[phattonez]

That's their choice then, since the Catholic Church has loads and loads and loads more to spend if it wanted to.

I forget who it was in the media but they pointed out that the Vatican had enough $$ and assets to end world hunger if it chose to.

Nonsense. Sure the Church could feed everyone for a while, but then there would be hunger again after.

 

[phattonez]

Perhaps you should look at this document that was published by probably one of your favorite organizations.

Alcohol Prohibition Was A Failure

Although consumption of alcohol fell at the beginning of Prohibition, it subsequently increased. Alcohol became more dangerous to consume; crime increased and became "organized"; the court and prison systems were stretched to the breaking point; and corruption of public officials was rampant. No measurable gains were made in productivity or reduced absenteeism. Prohibition removed a significant source of tax revenue and greatly increased government spending. It led many drinkers to switch to opium, marijuana, patent medicines, cocaine, and other dangerous substances that they would have been unlikely to encounter in the absence of Prohibition. Those results are documented from a variety of sources, most of which, ironically, are the work of supporters of Prohibition--most economists and social scientists supported it. Their findings make the case against Prohibition that much stronger.

That's just a paragraph from the intro. Also, making alcohol illegal is a lot easier than making prostitution illegal. If alcohol isn't produced any longer, the use would obviously drop. You can't really stop the "production" of prostitutes without eliminating sexual wants and the monetary incentive to become a prostitute. If you can explain to me how you will do those two things, you might be correct. However, you never can, so your points are meaningless.

There are plenty of benefits that you can point to when you make drugs and alcohol legal. I actually see big benefits there, though I also cannot ignore the negatives. It's an evil that I can justify tolerating. Prostitution, however, I don't see it.

 

[phattonez]

It may have lowered the rate of drinking, but it created other spinoff problems by funding a huge buildup in organized crime, with turf fights out on the streets and civilians being killed in the crossfire. The funding source made organized crime more powerful than it ever had been. Keeping prostitution illegal allows a funding source for organized crime now and encourages trafficking of women. Sexwork should be legal.

Re: Prohibition, society eventually decided people who wanted to drink would drink anyway, and the spinoff negatives were worse than the problem they originally were trying to solve.

I'm not saying that prohibition was a good thing, I'm just pointing out the fact that it did decrease consumption.

 

[ajn678]

There are plenty of benefits that you can point to when you make drugs and alcohol legal. I actually see big benefits there, though I also cannot ignore the negatives. It's an evil that I can justify tolerating. Prostitution, however, I don't see it.

Surely drugs and alcohol do more harm than two people having sex? Especially when birth control and condoms are used. All I feel here is some Puritan "sex is evil" campaign coming from you.

 

[Lursa]

Nonsense. Sure the Church could feed everyone for a while, but then there would be hunger again after.

No it wasnt just about handing out food :doh

Good Lord!

 

[Viking11]

Duh, freedom.

 

[phattonez]

Surely drugs and alcohol do more harm than two people having sex? Especially when birth control and condoms are used. All I feel here is some Puritan "sex is evil" campaign coming from you.

50% of abortions happen when contraception fails, so it's not as if contraception totally sterilizes the act. And this is all without even getting into the emotional harm that promiscuity causes.

 

[ajn678]

50% of abortions happen when contraception fails, so it's not as if contraception totally sterilizes the act. And this is all without even getting into the emotional harm that promiscuity causes.

Abortion has nothing to do with legalizing prostitution or not. Abortions happen either way, legalizing prostitution is not going to lead to a spike in abortions. What is this emotional harm that you speak of from promiscuity?

 

[Lursa]

50% of abortions happen when contraception fails, so it's not as if contraception totally sterilizes the act. And this is all without even getting into the emotional harm that promiscuity causes.

If someone chooses to be a 'professional,' there are other more efficient options, like IUDs for example. Combined with condoms, hormone implants and IUDs can be pretty reliable, as can The Pill plus condoms.

Just because 'casual' participants have a 50% rate of failure doesnt mean that a 'professional' would.

 

[Gaudius]

Both prostitution and homosexuals practice are voluntary action between two adult human beings. Those who support criminalization of prostitution do not need to condemn those countries in the world having punishment against homosexual practice. So the anwer to the thread is clearly: yes.

 

[Gathomas88]

I do not see where that leads to a better society, and I see many ways in which it leads to a worse, more degraded one.

Eh. More and more, I actually don't know.

In the Middle Ages, and most of the Early Modern era, sex work was basically regarded as being a necessary evil by Church and State alike. The reasoning being that if men didn't have access to those women, they'd look for satisfaction among more "respectable" women instead, which creates all kinds of problems.

Given the rather debauched "anything goes" state of modern society... It's kind of hard to argue that they didn't kind of have a point.

Legalized sex work would not only probably be safer for all parties involved (regulated brothels can be legally required to use protection and minimize alcohol consumption, for example, and they can also hire security to prevent things like sexual assault), but it'd probably serve to minimize a lot of the social pressure responsible for modern, casual sex obsessed, nonsense like "the hook-up culture."

 

[foadi]

Eh. More and more, I actually don't know.

In the Middle Ages, and most of the Early Modern era, sex work was basically regarded as being a necessary evil by Church and State alike. The reasoning being that if men didn't have access to those women, they'd look for satisfaction among more "respectable" women instead, which creates all kinds of problems.

Given the rather debauched "anything goes" state of modern society... It's kind of hard to argue that they didn't kind of have a point.

Legalized sex work would not only probably be safer for all parties involved (regulated brothels can be legally required to use protection and minimize alcohol consumption, for example, and they can also hire security to prevent things like sexual assault), but it'd probably serve to minimize a lot of the social pressure responsible for modern, casual sex obsessed, nonsense like "the hook-up culture."

Why limit prostitution to boring brothels, and why limit alcohol consumption?