The oldest profession.

[demosincebirth]

They should have legalized it years ago. Too much time and money spent on what consenting adults do. My wife disagrees.

[Fenris]

1. I agree, but I would add illegal drugs to that.

I believe that the war on vices is an utter waste of the resources of law enforcement in this country. Illegality has not eliminated the problem; in some ways, it has made it worse.

[Snow]

2. "The oldest profession."

ummmm, shaman? healer? tool maker? hunter?

[Beware the Beast Man]

3. Why, in this perfect capitalist system of ours,

isn't it legal???
As George Carlin said: "Selling's legal, fucking's legal. Why isn't selling fucking legal??"

[tjwash]

5. Because we are descended from a long line...

...of uptight puritans. The original pilgrims were from the Church of England, which was a fundamentalist group that was so uptight about everything, even the English couldn't stand them. That's why they left England and came here.

[Interrobang]

7. Ahem. Puritanism is *not* Church of England.

Church of England is mainline Anglicanism ("Episcopalian" for some reason in the US) -- the Puritans were persecuted by the CofE and expelled for their religious beliefs, which the CofE considered heretical.

High Anglicanism is rather similar to Catholicism, except that the authority figure is the Archbishop of Canterbury instead of the Pope.

AFAIK, prostitution is decriminalised in Canada; you just can't solicit or pander (in the legal sense).

[tjwash]

19. Ahem, actually it *is*.

The name "puritan" came to be used to describe members of the Church of England who wished to purify it of all semblances to the Roman Catholic Church, in particular the liturgy, vestments and episcopal hierarchy.

The Puritans emphasized that they did not wish to destroy the Church of England, nor did they want to separate from it. Their sole aim was to restore it to its original purity.

American history 101

It's neither here or there though, and definately not worth arguing about. After the Church of England came here to the new world, the word puritan, over time, became synonymous with a majority Anglo-Saxon based protestant dogma.

[He loved Big Brother]

16. It is legal

Porno movies = sex for money.

[Goldmund]

4. Of course.

I can't come up with a single reason why prostitution should be illegal -- not a single one.

[Nikia]

6. I am of a divded opinion on this

I do generally agree that what people do that does not infringe on the rights of others should not be illegal. Prostitution does seem to be this type of issue. Some people are not good at attracting partners for a variety of reasons and legalizing it could provide a good outlet for them.
On the otherhand, I am a married woman and a feminist. I am for the advancement of equal relationships between men and women. I know that many male/female relationships are not equal but prostitution is inherently unequal. I also think that it should not be overly convient for a man to cheat on his wife. Legal prostitution is the lowest risk way of cheating. There is also the issue of the spread of disease although I suppose that could be addressed with regulations should prostitution become legalized.

[Snow]

10. You're right - speaking now as a public health practitioner,

disease in general is tons easier to control if you don't give people a reason to hide the disease or themselves. Principle applies to a lot of arenas besides sexually transmitted diseases.

[TreasonousBastard]

12. Where prostitution is legal...

there is nothing inherently unequal any more than with any other commercial transaction for a service. The problems come with illegality and the scum who deal in "white slavery."

And, we should remember that there are quite a few males selling their services to women, although the demand there doesn't seem to be as high. So far.

[demosincebirth]

24. Prostitution is legal in

certain counties in Nevada, and has been for years. Even the Federal Gov ran the Mustang Ranch Brothel, outside of Reno, for about 3-4 years. Took it over on back taxes, or some thing of that nature. Don't know if they kept it open or not.

[geniph]

21. You're speaking as if only women were prostitutes

or were exploited. The teenage boys I see on streetcorners at night would probably disagree.

[MrSlayer]

8. Agreed. It's ridiculous to punish people for having fun.

Another case of creating our own criminals.

[HEyHEY]

9. Gathering?

[TreasonousBastard]

11. Why am I not surprised...

that you wife disagrees?

[Speck Tater]

13. The reason women oppose it is...

Prostitution is a one-time service for a one-time fee. The price and nature of the service are agreed upon in advance, and if the customer is happy with the service he can become a repeat customer to that service provider, but if the customer is not happy he can seek out a different service provider.

Marriage is essentially a contract in perpetuity for the same service. But the marriage contract is significantly different in a number of ways. Once the customer has agreed to pay the price the service provider is under no obligation to actually provide the service contracted for. The customer is never informed in advance of the actual lifetime price of the contract or the quality and quantity of service to be provided under the terms of the contract. If the customer is unhappy with the quality of the service he is not contractually free to seek out other service providers without incurring a very severe financial penalty.

Prostitution is free-market competition to the monopolistic practices and open-ended, unlimited liability contracts that customers for this service are often tricked into signing. The more this service is available on a single-transaction basis on the open market the harder it becomes for those service providers who would exploit the need for this service by placing unwitting customers into lifelong financial bondage while denying them the very service they signed that monopolistic contract to provide.

[Rabrrrrrr]

15. Wow!

Cynical, but I can't necessarily argue with it. From a certain point of view, you're dead accurate.

[Nikia]

17. I do think that it undermines marriage

You are looking at it from only one angle. Do men only want women for sex? Do women want men only for money? Are women more than bodies? Are men more than paychecks? Should women be tossed aside if she is no longer as attractive or a man be tossed aside if he cannot work or has to take a lower paying job?
This is one of the things that I mean about favoring and promoting equal relationships between men and women. I believe that lifelong monagamy (among people really committed to this ideal and not abusive types) is good for the emotional well being of both men and women (or same sex partners in those cases) and is a good environment for raising children (if they become parents).

[Speck Tater]

18. I agree.

Ideally (but you could never get anyone to agree to it) would be for lifelong commitment and sexual satisfaction to be "de-coupled" so that one does not necessarily have to be the sole source of the other. Just as a personal example, I'm a man that would rather have sex with a woman, but I'd rather have a close lifelong non-sexual partnership with another man. Go figure. But that's not on the menu of "standard choices" for some reason.

Or what about the man or woman who finds an ideal intellectual partner, an ideal sexual partner and an ideal child-rearing partner, and those three partners are three different people. Why can't that work? Why can't a man maintain a long-term stable child-rearing parnership while finding a new intellectual or sexual partner from time to time?

If a woman needs her car repaired she has the option of hiring a mechanic rather than insisting that her husband perform that duty. What's wrong with a long-term child-rearing relationship where the husband can contract for out whatever other services his partner is disinclined to provide? Thaere's no fundamental reason why that should be considered "wrong."

[jpgray]

25. Nice way to put it

Taking both sides, and very politely. Nikia goes down on my 'surprisingly reasonable' list, which is remarkably brief in its DU section and doesn't include me, so far as I remember. :D

[denverbill]

14. Oh, I thought you meant COBOL programmers.

Never mind.

[rinsd]

20. It is already...

It's called marriage!

(ducking)

[Zorra]

22. It's legal here in Mexico.

No big deal. One of my friends is a sex worker.

[SarahB]

23. Another issue that I feel libertarian about....

that I personally wouldn't want as a major part of my own life. Tax, regularly screen people for disease, and practice safer sex and it's not the worst thing in the world. A man who would cheat with a prostitute would probably cheat anyway. You can't legislate character.