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Should prostitution be legal?

Should prostitution be legal?

  • Yes

    Votes: 92 83.6%

  • No

    Votes: 18 16.4%
  • Total voters
    110
Peter Grimm said:
No, but I think porn is quite harmful all the same. Just a personal opinion, based on a bit of research, though big studies haven't really been done.

Prostitution, on the other hand, is very well studied and we know how harmful it is.
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Real prostitution is terrible, I agree.

But porn will never go away. Too many senators and congressmen are unhappily married.
 
kingsbridge said:
"Many..."

That says it all. Many, but not all. Many people are killed for their organs, yet organ transplants are legal. People are kidnapped and sold for work in Asian factories, yet working in factories is legal. Of course people use and will continue to use sick methods of getting girls who don't want to do certain things to do those things. That's not going to evaporate. The question is whether making it legal for girls to willingly do it will help. The answer is probably a yes.

I'm not absolutely sure I would support it, but I don't think you've given me any reason not to. All these statistics and the degradation of societal values are irrelevant, really. Do we really need to go through all the dangerous jobs in the world? Because very close to 100% of the most dangerous jobs in the world are legal. Danger is not a reason to make it illegal, as long as the people do it do it willingly and do not harm others.
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Yeah, you have to weigh the danger of the job with how useful it is. Prostitution isn't useful to society. If anything, it's harmful. Other dangerous jobs, like being a firefighter, a soldier, or an astronaut, are very useful. So you can't really compare them.
 
Peter Grimm said:
Do you really think anyone would choose to be a prostitute?
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Yes, I've talked to several who did exactly that. They find it preferable to having huge student debt and constantly having to work or study for four years straight to get a degree. Strippers and prostitutes can make more in one Friday or Saturday night than a minimum wage worker in 40-hours.
 
AlabamaPaul said:
And what did it cost you? You see, IMV, those against prostitution are a bit hypocritical in that they don't equate the expense of getting "some real *****" with prostitution. Can you explain the difference other than you had to seduce one and not the other?
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When two consenting adults hook up, one isn't treating the other like a piece of meat. It's usually an equal relationship. Most women won't let you walk up to them, throw a couple bucks their way, and stick it in their cooter. You have to get to know them a bit as people.

You're not destroying their sense of self-worth.
 
peter grimm said:
the difference, kingsbridge, is that toilet cleaners don't kill themselves at a rate 40 times higher than the national average. 75% of women who clean toilets haven't attempted suicide.
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Don't quote Canadian estimates when we're clearly talking USA, here.
 
Peter Grimm said:
Yeah, you have to weigh the danger of the job with how useful it is. Prostitution isn't useful to society. If anything, it's harmful. Other dangerous jobs, like being a firefighter, a soldier, or an astronaut, are very useful. So you can't really compare them.
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Economics 101 tells us that as long as people are buying a service, the service is useful. Soldiers aren't useful if there are no wars. Prostitutes wouldn't be useful if there were no horny men trying to get some quick satisfaction. But both exist.
 
kingsbridge said:
Economics 101 tells us that as long as people are buying a service, the service is useful.
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Yeah but that's wrong. It might provide some utility to the person buying the service, but it might be detrimental to the bigger picture.

For example, I could pay somebody to torture puppies. How is that useful except to amuse a sick sonofabitch?
 
Peter Grimm said:
When two consenting adults hook up, one isn't treating the other like a piece of meat. It's usually an equal relationship. Most women won't let you walk up to them, throw a couple bucks their way, and stick it in their cooter. You have to get to know them a bit as people.

You're not destroying their sense of self-worth.
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Perhaps many prostitutes like to have a chat before ------ the client?
After all, what is more degrading to one's image: paying that person for consensual sex, or getting this person drunk, or high, and persuade her to have sex?
 
Peter Grimm said:
Stripping and prostitution are psychologically damaging. This is backed up by all the statistics. When you reduce a woman to a commodity, to a piece of meat for you to purchase, she starts to see herself as just that. Her self-esteem goes in the tank, and self-destructive tendencies follow.

You can choose to ignore it, but the statistics about prostitution do not lie.
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That's more the result of the Holier-than-Thou crowd and their outdated mores as it is anything else. Take the social stigma out of the equation and it would be no different than toilet cleaning, digging ditches, or modeling.
 
AlabamaPaul said:
And what did it cost you? You see, IMV, those against prostitution are a bit hypocritical in that they don't equate the expense of getting "some real *****" with prostitution. Can you explain the difference other than you had to seduce one and not the other?
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Yep! It all costs money, one way or another! :)
 
Peter Grimm said:
Yeah but that's wrong. It might provide some utility to the person buying the service, but it might be detrimental to the bigger picture.

For example, I could pay somebody to torture puppies. How is that useful except to amuse a sick sonofabitch?
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Hm... I don't quite get it.

Your level of happiness increases, and the other person's level of happiness, or satisfaction, also increased, since he or she valued the money more than the life of this animal. It's a win-win.

But of course that you introduced a third party here--the dog. Don't use the dog as an excuse for rejecting the transaction, though. He isn't a poor dog; he didn't exist until you called him into the picture. And, as far as I'm concerned, there isn't already that much of a big business involving people torturing animals for fun. Prostitution, on the other hand, has been practised for centuries, and it's accepted in many cultures.
 
Grimm, I accept that you're against prostitution, and I've told you myself that I have some doubts... But you made me lean towards its legalisation more than anything else. There are probably stronger arguments you could use in your favour? Statistics on suicidal rates or proof that many women don't like it don't really cut it, in my opinion.
 
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kingsbridge said:
Grimm, I accept that you're against prostitution, and I've told you myself that I have some doubts... But you made me lean towards its legalisation more than anything else. There are probably stronger arguments you could use in your favour? Statistics on suicidal rates or proof that many women don't really cut it, in my opinion.
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Well, you're free to believe what you want. :peace
 
Peter Grimm said:
For example, I could pay somebody to torture puppies. How is that useful except to amuse a sick sonofabitch?
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Apples and oranges. We are talking about the activities of consenting adults, not animal abuse.
 
Geoist said:
Apples and oranges. We are talking about the activities of consenting adults, not animal abuse.
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The point wasn't to compare torturing puppies to prostitution, the point was to show that just because there is a demand for a certain good or service (in this case torturing puppies), the service is not always "useful."
 
Peter Grimm said:
The point wasn't to compare torturing puppies to prostitution, the point was to show that just because there is a demand for a certain good or service (in this case torturing puppies), the service is not always "useful."
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Well, as long as there are no non-consenting individuals in the activity, I don't think there can be an argument made for banning such an activity in a free society.
 
Geoist said:
Well, as long as there are no non-consenting individuals in the activity, I don't think there can be an argument made for banning such an activity in a free society.
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I think the fact that it's sick and twisted is reason enough to ban something like that.
 
HumanBeing said:
Simple question.
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At base, of course it should be legal. We see a lot of the negative repercussions now from making it illegal. If it were legal it would be easier controlled, regulated, and you could have a union for rights and wages.
 
MoSurveyor said:
Yep! It all costs money, one way or another! :)
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GO through one divorce while owning any assets then divide the total cost by your average sex outings and you will see what real prostitution is and cost.
 
Prohibition is total deregulation. Whether it's alcohol or drugs or prostitution, it not only doesn't work but backfires in spectacular fashion, creating wealthy and ruthless criminal empires. Proponents of prohibition understand that it doesn't work but support it anyway because they don't care about anyone who might chose to do what they disapprove of. They're content with using the consequences of prohibition to justifying prohibition, the sort of circular rational that is typical of people who aren't being honest or reasonable.
 
Rocketman said:
GO through one divorce while owning any assets then divide the total cost by your average sex outings and you will see what real prostitution is and cost.
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Ha-ha! Where did you come up with this formula?
 
No, taxing it too much will have the same effect as prohibition- forcing it back into the black market.

I think it should be completely untaxed.
 
SapphireSpire said:
No, taxing it too much will have the same effect as prohibition- forcing it back into the black market.

I think it should be completely untaxed.
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Is any activity untaxed now-a-days?
 
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