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Should prostitution be legal and not just for medical reasons?

Should it be legalized?

  • Yes, as quickly as possible

    Votes: 12 26.7%

  • yes and regulated by the state...

    Votes: 27 60.0%

  • no way...other people paying for sex ruins my life...

    Votes: 2 4.4%

  • don't you have anything better to do with your time...

    Votes: 4 8.9%
  • Total voters
    45
VanceMack said:
Oh I disagree...they should ABSOLUTELY be required to carry liability insurance and I guarantee there are professional insurance carriers that would take this on. No different from a massage therapist, professional prostitutes should be licensed, insured, etc.
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Liability insurance (this doesn't affect me) and health insurance (this does affect me,) they are two different animals.
 
JasonI said:
Yet there is no law against it...

So how would two consenting adults in a hotel room exchanging sex for money hurt YOU?
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OH, and yes there is laws against you blowing smoke out of your exhaust. Unless I misunderstood you on the no law against it.
 
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German guy said:
That said, I don't think it should be illegal. Criminalizing has more bad than good effects. Prostitution is called "the oldest business of all" for a reason: No criminalization effort will always be successful ending it. So we should better try to minimize the damage -- providing a legal frame and controls, for that there is no involuntary prostitution, pimping or human trafficking. The ugly side effects sourrounding illegal prostitution should be dried out. There should be health controls and prostitutes should enjoy the benefits like other employees too.
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I would argue that this enlightened harm reduction model has been employed and has, to my understanding, proven unsuccessful. The Dutch have had terrible problems with sex trafficking, and our own experiments with harm reduction-- in Nevada-- have been too small scale to provide reliable data. (It's a couple of counties in Nevada with documentaries being filmed every day.) I think a better approach, along the same harm reduction model, would be to decriminalize prostitution for the prostitutes themselves but to maintain criminal penalties for the customers and the pimps-- flipping the customers to nail the pimps whenever possible.

Good people can be and are forced into having sex for money, but nobody is forced into paying for sex and nobody is forced to traffick girls. These are not good people and I have no moral objections to hurting them in order to send the message that what they are doing is not acceptable in a civilized society.

German guy said:
As long as there is demand, there will be supply, so we better do our best to regulate and control this business instead of leaving it to criminals, including all aforementioned horrible side effects.
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I don't see criminalizing an industry as "leaving it to criminals" when you are actively enforcing the laws against it. Some things are wrong and must be abolished, even if it is not possible to eradicate them entirely-- after all, we abolished slavery in this country a century and a half ago and what profound moral wrong are we arguing about in this very thread?

But there's sure as Hell a lot less slavery going on in this country now than there was 150 years ago.

German guy said:
I don't see a contradiction to this approach on one side, and campaigns to morally prescribe prostitution. We can do both, legalize the business, but decreasing demand at the same time.
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I agree that we can do both, but I disagree that a public health and morality campaign is sufficient discouragement for a practice so morally abhorrent-- and for which there is such overwhelming biological encouragement.
 
barbarian_style said:
Liability insurance (this doesn't affect me) and health insurance (this does affect me,) they are two different animals.
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I agree with that. However it SHOULD be noted that today, your average crack ho is having an impact on health care costs.
 
VanceMack said:
I agree with that. However it SHOULD be noted that today, your average crack ho is having an impact on health care costs.
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Again this affect me in a negative way.

Crack is illegal and if you get a disease from these actions you may not qualify for disability insurance and your health care plan may say this falls under your own out of pocket expenses.
 
JasonI said:
How is this different from any other profession? If you get a stepladder that straw you are reaching for will be easier to grab...
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I am not grasping at straws as prostitution isn't legal and okay with it staying that way. The people reaching for straws are the ones coming at this issues uninformed on over all impacts of others and in what ways. Ignoring these as you plead your case for legalization is digging out the step ladder.
 
barbarian_style said:
I am not grasping at straws as prostitution isn't legal and okay with it staying that way. The people reaching for straws are the ones coming at this issues uninformed on over all impacts of others and in what ways. Ignoring these as you plead your case for legalization is digging out the step ladder.
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So are you going to answer the question or not?
 
barbarian_style said:
Again this affect me in a negative way.

Crack is illegal and if you get a disease from these actions you may not qualify for disability insurance and your health care plan may say this falls under your own out of pocket expenses.
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yet the hospitals still have to provide emergent care which they will not be reimbursed for and that will jack up your costs and your premiums. just a basic fact.
 
VanceMack said:
yet the hospitals still have to provide emergent care which they will not be reimbursed for and that will jack up your costs and your premiums. just a basic fact.
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This is the notion that this is always fact, you still need continuous follow up care on disease. You can not go to emergency rooms because you missed you uncovered cancer treatments as an emergency. The big money spent isn't in the urgent care centers it is the continuous care that is needed after the non-emergency, emergency on the disease.
 
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barbarian_style said:
Health care costs, they get sick I end up paying, when you start paying taxes and health insurance this becomes clearer.
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barbarian_style said:
Can you give a clearer question on what your insinuating same as other professionals? Pretty vague question I can not answer with information you provided as it being the same.
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I asked you how two consenting adults exchanging sex for money in a hotel room hurt YOU? You replied "Health care costs, they get sick I end up paying, when you start paying taxes and health insurance this becomes clearer"

Why are you singling out this type of business compared to any other?
 
barbarian_style said:
This is the notion that this is always fact, you still need continuous follow up care on disease. You can not go to emergency rooms because you missed you uncovered cancer treatments as an emergency. The big money spent isn't in the urgent care centers it is the continuous care that is needed after the non-emergency, emergency on the disease.
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That doesnt negate the costs incurred and transferred. We arent talking one or two patients a week, month, or even day in the ERs. As for that follow on cost...yes...the hospitals employ social workers to transfer even unfunded patients to state contracted providers and where patients are deemed 'disabled' for whatever reasons those costs are still there and still transferred to others. The costs dont just magically go away. Someone is paying the bills. That is all a departure of course on whether or not prostitution should be legalized.
 
JasonI said:
I asked you how two consenting adults exchanging sex for money in a hotel room hurt YOU? You replied "Health care costs, they get sick I end up paying, when you start paying taxes and health insurance this becomes clearer"

Why are you singling out this type of business compared to any other?
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There is many things that are singled out as different when it comes to a variety of business, I still see your question as being very vague and unanswerable.
 
VanceMack said:
That doesnt negate the costs incurred and transferred. We arent talking one or two patients a week, month, or even day in the ERs. As for that follow on cost...yes...the hospitals employ social workers to transfer even unfunded patients to state contracted providers and where patients are deemed 'disabled' for whatever reasons those costs are still there and still transferred to others. The costs dont just magically go away. Someone is paying the bills. That is all a departure of course on whether or not prostitution should be legalized.
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It is still an issue you have not addressed as the solution to the problem I described, this above response is just a justification.
 
VanceMack said:
Its not at all the same issue, so of COURSE I dont make the 'same' argument for cocaine.
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That works both ways. As with alcohol and gambling, the answer to prostitution is not "oh well folks are going to do it anyway". Surly prostitution must have some uniqu merit you would like to speak of.

VanceMack said:
Jerry...go to any bar or club anywhere in the country on pretty much any given night. Dorm parties.Frat parties. Spring break. People go there for the hookup. Alcohol fueled people trying hookup. Hell...Jimmy and Susie out on a date. Sex is a constant theme. Its out of the bag, and out of the closet. Imagine how much healthier the envioronment would be if Sweatie Stan DIDNT roll up in his pickup, offer 20 bucks for Handjob Hannah on a date behind a dumpster somewhere and instead went to her business, she had him take a shower beforehand, healthy environment for a sexual encounter, he pays $26.47 for the handjob and taxes. Im not trying to be flippant...Im describing a seedy part of our every day life and a MUCH more healthy legal alternative.
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You assume I'm inexperienced in the world and only object to prostitution because I'm nieve. Gee, thanks.
 
Jerry said:
That works both ways. As with alcohol and gambling, the answer to prostitution is not "oh well folks are going to do it anyway". Surly prostitution must have some uniqu merit you would like to speak of.
You assume I'm inexperienced in the world and only object to prostitution because I'm nieve. Gee, thanks.
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And we DID legalize alcohol as people DID and were drinking anyway. And taxed the hell out of it. In the case of prostitution it is a crime without a victim. We have criminalized a simple and consensual act and driven it into alleys and the underworld. There is no REASON for it to BE illegal.
As for the second part...geez Jerry...sometimes...how you get from point a to point b is freqin amazing. If I implied somewhere that you were not experienced to the ways of the world I apologize. Not even a little bit my intent.
 
barbarian_style said:
It is still an issue you have not addressed as the solution to the problem I described, this above response is just a justification.
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Guess you might have to dfo a better job with actually pointing out your point. Every job has risks. Insurance policies can be tailored to specifically cover risks. People today get STDs whether they are engaged in the offering or receiving end of prostitution or not. That isnt going to increase and will very likely decrease.
 
VanceMack said:
Guess you might have to dfo a better job with actually pointing out your point. Every job has risks. Insurance policies can be tailored to specifically cover risks. People today get STDs whether they are engaged in the offering or receiving end of prostitution or not. That isnt going to increase and will very likely decrease.
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Could I get the source from where you pulled the statistics on this? If not I disagree and think it would be likely to spike greatly.
 
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VanceMack said:
And we DID legalize alcohol as people DID and were drinking anyway. And taxed the hell out of it. In the case of prostitution it is a crime without a victim. We have criminalized a simple and consensual act and driven it into alleys and the underworld. There is no REASON for it to BE illegal.
As for the second part...geez Jerry...sometimes...how you get from point a to point b is freqin amazing. If I implied somewhere that you were not experienced to the ways of the world I apologize. Not even a little bit my intent.
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As I stated before it would affect me(and others in negative ways.) Not all crimes leave "victims."
 
VanceMack said:
And we DID legalize alcohol as people DID and were drinking anyway.
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In fact, people drank more during the prohibition then before or since, even children, which is surprising considering the fact that alcohol related deaths dropped during the prohibition despite the dangers of white lightning and moonshine.
VanceMack said:
And taxed the hell out of it.
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A lot fo countries which thought they were going to reap taxes from prostitutes actually had a deficit in unpaid taxes.
VanceMack said:
In the case of prostitution it is a crime without a victim.
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A slave is certainly a victim. The majority of prostitutes can not leave and are abused. Most are raped semi-regularly by pimps and johns, are addicted to drugs and suffer from a variety or emotional problems to include PTSD.
VanceMack said:
We have criminalized a simple and consensual act and driven it into alleys and the underworld.
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Which is where it belongs.
VanceMack said:
There is no REASON for it to BE illegal.
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From a human rights perspective, there can never exist any such a relationship in which a man would purchase and own the body of a woman as a commodity.

Legalized prostitution greatly exacerbates underground sex-slave human trafficking. Most nations which legalized prostitution, re-banned it after experiencing this truth. The oldest records of prostitution were of slaves.

Your typical prostitute comes from an abused background, enters prostitution out of desperation and/or coercion (not free choice) and becomes trapped in a life of physical, sexual, emotional, and drug abuse. This is not the life of an independent and free adult choosing to perform a service for a fee. This is a life of being owned and abused.
 
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barbarian_style said:
Sketching road to go down and for other reasons not mentioned. If it would only come down to the statement of "staying out of people's bedroom of consenting adults."

Let's look at this differently, if you are in a profession that involves your bedroom as an office then you just opened the door to your office for Uncle Sam to look in on his taxable income, not your bedroom door anymore.

Also when addressing other issues such as unemployment, all unemployment then should be denied because it would be tough to prove that no one is willing to haves sex with you for money. The thing is that you can not collect unemployment if you turn down gainable employment. In other words you would have the government now in some control of what you do with your body. Slippery slope folks that's all.
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That's nonsense. No one in Nevada has been denied unemployment because she or he refused work as a prostitute. People recognize that sex is a very personal thing and sex for money is not something most people are comfortable doing.
 
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