-- Modified on 4/28/2008 2:15:47 PM

Yes, You Are Missing Something....Once The Government Figures Out How To.....

suck all the fun out of sex, and make it a purely miserable occurance, then it will be legal.

If the government could figure out how to take 70% of your orgasmic bliss and give it to people too lazy to find or make pleasure on their own, then it would be legal!

If the government could figure out how to make you have sex with people you don't want to have sex with and deny you the ability to have sex with who you want to, then it will be legal.

When the government figures out how to get its' hands on all the money transferred in the sex trade and can figure a way to spend more money collecting that money than what they take in, then it will be legal.

When the government can come up with a plan to start charging a tax on consensual sex, then it will be legal.

If the government could figure out how to bog down sex for money with a ton of paperwork and laws, then it would be legal...of course then they would call it "marraige".


I blame Ted Kennedy, who once quipped to a fellow Senator who had just uttered the words, "if I may tax your memory..."

"Now Why Didn't I Think Of That!"

So why isn't buying your vote legal?
We also don't let people sell their body parts (kidneys).
We also don't let people sell themselves into slavery.
You can't sell your kids.

None of that is religious, per se.

Part of the foundation of our society is the stability of the family unit. Protecting that unit is a legitimate societal goal, regardless of whether it coincides with religious values (like murder, theft, etc.).

Prostitution undermines the integrity of the family unit. Yes there are other attacks on the family unit that society permits. But this is just one area that society has chosen to address.

Legality is one thing, social image is another.  We can reduce risk to get in legal trouble, but I alway come back to the general social image on prostitution that is not likely to change anytime soon.

-- Modified on 4/28/2008 2:39:53 PM

Ironically, for many centuries, prostitution was an accepted social and cultural institution as a way of protecting the sanctity of the marriage and the family.  Now it's viewed as a threat to both.  Go figure.

Of course, as someone else mentioned, this is the result of religion's influence on social behavior and our almost limitless ability to self-delude regarding human nature.  Obviously, it's another example of "do as I say, not as I do."

Even as birth control and modern medicine have removed any of the lingering, worn-out stigmas about prostitution, I'm afraid the inertia of centuries of brainwashing are hard to reverse.

Morality is considered important by all, but there are a number of subjects that simply aren't clear. What is moral and what is immoral? Prostitution is one of those areas. Unfortunately, that means that your morals depend on what you believe. The US was founded on Christianity and if you follow the teachings of Christianity, then prostitution IS in fact immoral. Not all of us are Christian though. The problem is that the Christian morals are the foundation of the country and its laws and while things have been slowly changing, this is one subject that has remained the same in terms of large-scale society. The majority sees it as immoral still. So yes, the issue isn't legality, it is morality. If it is suddenly legalized, it would most likely still be immoral to the general society.

I don't see anything wrong with people considering it immoral because that is what they believe and that is what they have based their morals on. I understand the frustration with you having to follow laws based on moral beliefs you do not agree with, but that is America and that is democracy. Majority rule. And the majority says illegal and immoral.

The other issue is health. Legalizing prostitution would most likely increase prostitution and thus increase the general health risk. I know, I know, this is debatable, but on the whole I think we can agree that legal prostitution makes the average citizen a higher risk for STD's, especially AIDS, etc. And that alone will keep it illegal. It is for the greater health of overall society.

I don't argue the morality part, and I can't do much about the legality part...but I can still participate!!

Have fun and quit worrying about it. You know the risks. Be careful!

Because Ugly Housewives are a huge voting block.

How else do you explain the popularity of Oprah?

-- Modified on 4/28/2008 9:05:10 PM

America was settled by Puritans first-- who, understand, were religious fanatics comparable to the Taliban. They believed that sexual morality was necessary to the health of society. Their sexual morality wasn't worse than any other sect at the time, it was just enforced more harshly. Prostitutes had it bad, but better than witches.

Things then relaxed a lot as the US expanded West and secularized and during the Civil War.

However, prostitution always had some things against full acceptance. First, it broke family ties. Prostitutes were generally alienated from their families. They also were also single parents, a fact not generally realized. The fathers of these children were unknown, and they  were usually under-educated, under-socialized and  became criminals. Third of course, was the spread of disease.

These three problems have been alleviated today.

One more thing needs to be noted: in the early 20th century, Women's Suffrage Movement and Populist Movement usually aimed at shutting down brothels and arresting prostitutes. It's the same coalition that brought us Prohibition, BTW.

Since then, the most vocal opposition to prostitution has come from women. Housewives especially, will never, ever approve of legality. If it happens, it will be as a matter of rights.

that's easy.

Its illegal because its against the law.

Re: Trying to understand why prostitution is illegal... I hope this makes sense

Let’s step back and review a few things.  
During the 1700s, due to the stationing of soldiers in New York and Boston these cities had fewer families, compared to the number of horny men, and thus created a need for prostitution. After 1810, prostitution became both a political and social problem. Prostitution rose due to rapid urbanization, expanding male population, low female wages and discrimination against women.  Prostitution was made illegal in most US States between the years 1910 and 1915; the exception being that 10 of 17 counties in Nevada had decided to keep prostitution legal.
I've often thought that prostitution was made illegal because wives and mothers got tired of competing with the local whorehouse for daddy's attention with the kids.  If you think back as recently as the 19th century it was LEGAL in most if not all of the United States.  I seem to be of the impression (and it could be urban legend) that Abraham Lincoln was removed from the Ford Theater after he was shot in the head and was not returned to the White House to die, which is only a few blocks away, but was delivered across the street to whorehouse he frequented.  
During the Victorian Era through 1920 we endured suffrage (women got the right to vote and men suffered... just joking p) and many saw the prostitute as a threat.  The view was that (a) the prostitute was an expense unique to family that competed against the wives family goals; (b) only seeing (being aware of) the street walker most assumed that all prostitutes lived a tough life that often resulted in a very early death; (c) the henpecked and cockled men in politics listened to their newly formed female constituencies (especially mothers, wives, and daughters); (d) that the same women who just received the right be peers of men – equals, were concerned about the street walker who didn’t have access bringing STDs into the family; and finally (e) from 1840 through 1900 American society engaged in the Victorian era and a stricter moral code was became the law of the land.
I think these five factors led to the crimilization of prostitution and it wasn’t any one of them but the combination of them that resulted in the backlash fro having no laws to prohibit it.  In all that time the two issues that result in prostitution were never addressed.  The first is that as a rule, men are horny.  Today’s woman, who would often rather push their spouses to the TV set rather than the bedroom, sees the problem as “Darwin be damned, men need to control themselves”.  The second problem is that given the US job market, where else can women make the type of money available to them as prostitutes?  Since anti-prostitution laws ignore these factors the industry grows in the black market.

If it could be effectively taxed, unavoidable license fees collected, along with multitudes of other regulatory/ancillary costs mandated our government would surely tell the religious/moral opponents of prostitution to drop dead.

  I’m personally convinced that if a small 6’x 6’ solar panel was developed that could easily heat and supply the total energy needs for an entire household; the government (and the entire energy industry) would find reason to make it a capital crime to own and utilize such a device.    

If there ever is a solution to this historical issue, it will come about when the principle that "consensual behavior between adults is not the business of government" is universally recognized.  If an adult engages in prostitution, that is a problem between himself and his god, if any; or his wife or SO. Such acts should not be illegal, but they are never risk free.  
Vices often associated with prostitution such as STD, trafficking, abuse,sexual slavery, child molestation, etc can be mitigated by more focused and effective law enforcement and public education.
Even a country that fancies itself as a nation of laws should not try to legislate morals -- it doesn't work, and morality is a personal issue anyway, not the business of law enforcement entities.  Just my opinion.

That's a phrase economists use to describe a "strange bedfellows" arrangement that often explains American political regulations. On the one hand, you have groups that financially benefit from an activity or service being illegal. In the case of Alcohol Prohibition it was Al Capone and his gang, who were willing to make large profits by violating the prohibition (since with prohibition, supply decreases, and with constant demand price rises). The last thing Capone wants is for Prohibition to end. But of course, he wouldn't get anywhere making this argument. Fortunately, his interests in prohibition are shared with another group--in this case progressive religionists who felt the evils of alcohol could be eliminated simply by legal prohibition.

It's not so much they consciously "joined forces" but that both forces together accomplished things that neither alone could. Capone's minions, of course, include the paid-off, corrupted police and judiciary, who also didn't want to see those laws end.

For prostitution prohibition, the Bootleggers are ladies, agencies, "pimps" and others who, as part of their business routinely pay for police "protection" which can include running out others (esp. others who don't pay protection), keeping the prices up for the consumer.  Perhaps this force is less large with the growth of internet advertising, but I did hear stories that Eliot Spitzer, while Attorney General of NY, tried to close down brothels/agencies that, it turns out, competed against The Emperor's Club. Meanwhile, the Baptists--which is to say the religious right, as well as progressive left feminists who see all sex workers as victims--are always full in force.

The politicians get paid by the bootleggers while appeasing, and getting votes from, the Baptists.

I once heard someone argue against those who wanted prostitution illegal: "Prostitution is simply capitalism applied to sex. What don't you like, capitalism or sex?" In today's puritanistic and highly over-regulated America, the sad answer is "Both."

//Lecture over//