California will lead the nation (as it usually does) in setting up districts let's call them to promote the sex trade. As it stands now, they make very little off the pornography biz and are losing revenues by the billions. To make it legal would give them a tax base from sex revenues and needless to say, the associated trade. Watch it happen.
Imagine if prostitution were legal (and taxed), with the proviso that the government would record each transaction (but not the juicy details). Providers and their clients (and who met whom when and where) would be posted weekly in the local newspaper and also posted onto the internet -- by law.
How would you feel about it?
Wouldn't bother me.
Might be some privacy regulations being violated, there, though. A doctor keeps records of who comes in and how much they pay and what they get. My medical records can be checked by court order or if I give permission. They aren't published in the newspaper, though.
It would be a very boring thing to read. But a bizarre idea nonetheless!
What's the point of asking a ridiculous question like this. It's not like you're buying real estate. The transactions would never be published.
... transactions, e.g., liquor, cigarettes, etc., except for guns. Who'd do the recording? The Department of Prostitution? NOBODY would go for this. What you'd have is the same situation you have now, i.e., illegal transactions, but NOT because they were sex-for-money deals, rather because they were off the books.
...but -taxes and + juicy details?
...contact the sellers. It's the seller's responsibilty to collect and pay sales tax, not the buyers...Otherwise it would be "buys" tax. 
[white-collar supervillain]
California will lead the nation (as it usually does) in setting up districts let's call them to promote the sex trade. As it stands now, they make very little off the pornography biz and are losing revenues by the billions. To make it legal would give them a tax base from sex revenues and needless to say, the associated trade. Watch it happen.
In different places in Europe, where your legal transparent environment exists, you can buy a drop dead gorgeous 20-something 9 or 10 rated girl for around 50 euros (less than $70) with just a little negotiation.
Same thing here in our illegal unregulated environment costs $300 minimum.
I've seen them online going for as low as $200. One woman who rates about a 7 by my estimate (higher if her teeth were fixed) has a regular price of $150, and still offers discounts.
The most logical and workable solution would be to decriminalize, not legalize, prostitution that occurred between consenting adults in private. Society is not going to accept street prostitution where women ply their trade in scantly clad clothing and wave down motorists. Agencies that exploit immigrants and pimps who are involved in organized crime will not be tolerated either. On the other hand, independent prostitutes who arrange their meetings out of public view are of no threat to the safety of the community. I am totally against any regulation of prostitution in any form by the government. The government has no business monitoring the private activities of its citizens. Most police departments have a policy of not pursuing independents unless a complaint is filed against the woman, so it wouldn’t be a drastic change in the law and its enforcement.
Here's the reason I asked. Since the definition of marriage is shifting, at least in places like Canada, to include gay marriage and eventually polyamory, adopting the Shi'ite custom of temporary marriage would not be much of a stretch. So, temporary marriage could become a backdoor way to legalize the hobby.
Newspapers, at least in rural areas, routinely carry marriage announcements, frequently with pictures of the groom and the bride. In fact, the whole point of marriage has been historically to publicize a sexual relationship between a man and a woman. It is a perceived social need to publicize sexual relationships that leads governments to register marriage in the first place. In contrast, much of the hobby's allure in the West is based upon anonymity, and the hobby's very anonymity is why it won't be regarded as legitimate.
There have been times and places where the hobby was one gigantic gossip factory. Prostitution was not merely public in Japan and China, but it was the stuff of legend. I think there would be a major constituency for legalizing prostitution in the US if everybody could be kept posted on the details. And for much of America, the "hobby news" would be far more interesting than the real estate section (especially for bored wives)…
It's like the story of finding a mouse to put a bell on the cat. Who would have the nerve to testify in favor of legitimizing (whether in the form of legalization or decriminalization) prostitution at a legislative hearing? And be seen by friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers going eyeball to eyeball against people who openly despise you? Usually, nobody does. And that's why anti-prostitution activists routinely win.