Another FreeThinking opinion from Jim Wilson.

Let’s Legalize Prostitution

Canada’s Ontario province has recently decided to legalize prostitution and brothels. Congratulations to them, and great job! Why don’t we move toward doing the same thing here in the states? While I have no interest in making use of the services of prostitutes, I really see no reason why their trade should be outlawed. If a man or woman wishes to pay for sex they should be able to. It’s their own money legalizing prostitution would be great for the economy. Frankly, I see no reason why two or more consenting adults cannot and should not be allowed to make such an agreement.

Prostitution like the use of marijuana and other drugs are victimless crimes and a matter of personal responsibility. I don’t understand how many of the puritanical traditionalist and self-appointed moral guardians, are also self-appointed high priests of personal responsibility and small government in nearly every other context.

Drug use and prostitution have been made much more dangerous and more sinister by confining them to black markets. Like alcohol in the twenties, black markets open up doors for gangsters and thugs and make criminal activity highly profitable. Confining prostitution to an illegal economy has forced prostitutes to subject themselves to merciless pimps and corrupt cops. The trade might be safer with some regulation and oversight.

Prostitution is perfect for a black market economy, which is why it is pervasive, even though it is outlawed in much of the world. It is in high demand. Customers are willing to pay high prices. The work itself requires low-skill and very attractive to the many workers, who have less success elsewhere in the economy. Prostitution appears commonly in places with great numbers of unattached men, like military bases. Should the men who serve our country’s military be free to release their sexual tension while contributing to the circulation of wealth throughout the economy? Why should men and women struggling to make ends meet be forbidden from earning money by bringing pleasure to others in a safe legal environment?

The United States, the land of the free, forbids consenting adults from engaging in desired sexual activity even though no one would be hurt by it. The client is able to fulfill his or her sexual desires, while the prostitute is able to earn an income, in what maybe precarious economic times. Some argue that prostitution may demean the people who engage in it, but if they, are recognized and given the same legal protections that other professionals have, this would certainly be less of the case. Prostitution isn’t the most demeaning job in existence. For-example, I find being told to wear the uniforms of fast food company employees or being told to express the false corporate enthusiasm of the telemarketer to be arguably as dehumanizing and demeaning as the work many prostitutes do. In some ways we are all prostitutes. With legal recognition more prostitutes could work independently and own their business. They’d be free to be independent and  would no longer need pimps for protection or pay policeman so that they could continue to work.

Legalizing prostitution would subject it to regulation, as well as health checks, standards of accommodation, and oversight that removes the risks associated with it. The self-appointed moral guardians may fear these beneficial consequences of legalization the most. There is very reactionary part of this culture that views free expressions of sexuality as pure evil and would hate seeing the risks removed.

The need for prostitutes is real and it would generally benefit society. More people would have the option of meeting their sexual desires in safe, legal and consensual ways. The taboo nature of human sexuality, the repression of human sexuality, and the glorification of purity and virginity have done great harm to society. The repressed sexuality will often express itself in unhealthy ways and there are many stories of sexual dysfunction caused by growing up in a sex negative environment. We should not rely on the government to impose morality on everyone. Government has the job of protecting our freedom and should allow us to come to our own moral conclusions and not force those of others upon us. If you don’t like marijuana or prostitution do not participate, but do not try to impose your moral beliefs on everyone else. This, as I emphasized in my piece on CAP, is especially true of if your moral beliefs and objections are religiously based: No one has the right to impose their religious morality on others through force.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 28th, 2012 at 5:00 am and is filed under AZ Politics, Christianity, Critical Thinking, Economics, Ethics, God & Bible, Government, History, Libertarianism, Logic, Question of the Day!, Reason, Religion, Responsible Government, Separation of Church & State. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.