Pretty darn good if you live in Europe or Nevada..........

First, this "hobby" as it were, IS legal in the state of Nevada as well as other U.S. regions to certain degrees. This fact is one of thousands of elements that reduces the possibility of legalization throughout the U.S. to nearly 0%.

Huge fundamentalist organizations with tremendous financial backing keep a large number of politicians firmly in their pockets, pushing their moralist agendas, one of the greatest of which is the concept that selling sex is immoral. At the same time, lobbyist from Nevada work to ensure that they maintain the monopoly on sex and gambling that earns them the moniker of Sin City and keeps people coming to their state to spend lots of money.

Add to that, the League of Women Voters and other Women’s rights group who strongly believe that prostitution of any kind is the exploitation of women (even if they choose it for themselves) and many providers who prefer to keep it illegal to control the competition and keep the rates high.  With fundamentalists, gambling empires, State governments and Women’s rights groups all working to keep prostitution illegal throughout the country, it's a no win if your on the legalization side of the debate.

The answer is that the chances are excelent!!  The only two provisors being that they politicials find a way to tax it without losing any votes from lobbys in against it.  So what else is new?

I am guessing it will happen not by legislation but by judicial decree. I have long been waiting for a legal argument that prostitution laws are in violation of both the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment (i.e., the "Lemon" test in Kurtzmann v. Lemon) and the Bill of Rights in general (Griswold v. PPL of CT, et al). If sexual conduct between two consenting adults is constitutionally protected, why should the exchange of money vitiate such protection?

That is it in a nutshell.  If I could have a dime for every politician that has told me (off the record of course) that they agree that it should be legitimized.  The problem is that anyone of those politicians standing up to say that would be committing political suicide over it.  There has to be a scenario presented in which those politicians can legitimize it without any risk to their carreers.  That is the answer.  

For the post above regarding Drugs?  Forget it. Marijuanna has the best shot, but I wouldn't hold my breath on it.

Change is coming though.  Bill Clinton was the first, but as more and more of the old 40' and 50's generation retire, the 60's generation is filtrating high level positions.  The ideals that they grew up with will begin to take hold and I think that a lot of what I call the old world views will change.  It will take time though.  

Again, here is hoping.

Lauren

Nation wide, no chance whatsoever.  You'd be fighting too many religious organizations where people take themselves way too seriously and require everyone to live up to their standards of behavior.  The most likely thing is for states like California, Oregon, Washington, i.e. the ones far away from the bible belt take it upon themselves to either legalize or criminalize it.  That is something that I do not think is too far away.

Lawmakers have wives. Do you think for one second they could come home and tell their wive they voted to legalize something like this, something so threatening to their wives??? They will always (and always have) voted against this quote "filthy" hobby.

A 3 judge panel ruled this morning that the pledge of allegience is illegal and all schools in the 9th (everything west of the rockies) are now forbidden to say the pledge.

Along with the coverage of this I found out that this same court has ruled that the smoking of mj is not and cannot be illegal on federal lands.  This was in a ruling for some rastas but applies to others.

I assume they could and possibly would do the same for the freedom and right of prositution if a case were brought to them.

to either decrim or legalize with plausible non-shame:

1 - Causes LE to waste time and resources enforcing victimless crimes instead of crimes that do have a negative impact on all of us.  "We need to decrim this (and maybe other stuff) so that LE will focus on murder, rape, burglery, terrorism,.. ."

2 - "There is no valid and legal reason for this to be illegal except for some peoples morals.  Our country does not exist to enforce your morals or my morals, but to allow all of us to live in a safe and free society."

3 - "Prohibition has little to no impact.  It always has been with us and no law will change that."

4 - "To protect the people trapped in prostitution."  There are, whether we like it or not, numerous women forced into this against their wills.  Legalization will allow people to report crimes without fear of being arrested themselves for what they are doing.

5 - "Today women are hesitant to report rapes, robbery, and other actions against them that are victim crimes and the criminals that commit these crimes are still on the streets.  Legalization will allow these crimes to be reported without fear of retribution and will get real criminals off the streets."

6 - "Men in today's society are constantly bombarded with sexual stimulation, from billboards, emails, A&F catalogs, 18 year olds wearing very tight and extremely thin cotton gym shorts without even a thong leaving nothing to the imagination including bush color and shape and on and on.  If we don't legalize prostitution we will have continually increasing problems with date rape and other real crimes that have real victims.  Legalizing prostitution will provide a legal and safe option for release of this stimulated tension."


There are numerous more, but running out of time.  Just for fun though:

1 - "We need the tax money."

2 - "There are too many people from Enron and Worldcom out of work that need this as an option to be gainfully employeed rather than be on unemployment roles."

There are a few on our side... Sort of:

http://www.lp.org/press/archive.php?function=view&record=587

I was going to post a thread calling into question some of the points made in light of the recent events in Florida.  However, your post does address some points and I am going to play devil's advocate.  I may not agree with what I post but I just wanted to put these thoughts out for debate.

I have seen alot of posts regarding "victimless crime"; most of which say law enforcement shouldn't waste our tax money on these "victimless crimes".  The most common examples given of these "victimless crimes" are prostitution, drugs and gambling.  Ironically, these historically have been staples of "organized crime".  Aside from a few other crimes and the occassional hit, most crimes committed by the mafia are of the "victimless" variety.  Should law enforcement stop enforcing these victimless crimes and leave the mob alone?  What would your answer be if say a terrorist organization was earning money from these victimless crimes?  Lets say Osama brings over all his wives and they shed their berkas (spelling?) and set up shop?  What about if Osama were earning money selling drugs to us to finance his plots against us?  Hmn!

Next, is prostitution truely victimless?  What about those forced into it because of the high amount of income that can be made?  Do you know the stories behind the girls working in the local AMP?  Do you think it is also possible that some of those faces on the back of milk cartons are engaged in prostitution because someone is exploiting them because of all the money which can be made?  What about a young lady with a serious substance abuse problem and prostitution feeds her more funds to get more and more drugs rather than get help from this other victimless crime?  What about the ladies working hard earning $10 per hour because they don't want to engage in the victimless crime?  Are they victims?

I know, you are saying if they only legalized these "victimless crimes" many of these problems will go away.  Do you think organized crime would like to see sports gambling legal all over the country?  What about drugs?  They are probably the last people who would want to see this happen.  What about prostitution?  Do you think the ladies would want it legalized?  First off, it is legal in parts of Nevada.  The ladies can just go work there if that is their desire.  Notice even in Nevada it is only legal in certain counties depending on the population.   What would happen if we elected someone with the slogan "a brothel on every corner"?  Wouldn't legalization cause the prices to drop drastically?  Would the ladies be willing to sell their time and companionship if they were now getting paid $10 per hour rather than $300?  Would you want it legalized if there is a brothel on the corner of where you live?  Would you want your daughter to get a job at the brothel when she turns 18?  You know, to help her through college.  I am sure some of the young men of the neighborhood would love it.  I am sure some would even go so far as to get a fake ID to visit the brothel after baseball practice.  Just think if that hot school teacher worked at the brothel after school.  Boy I remember some teachers who I would have loved to have seen after school. However, a positive thing might come about; I am sure some of the fathers would be more inclined to go to parent-teacher conference to check out the hot teachers who work at the brothel during summer vacation.

Is my post full of hypocrisy?  Yes, most definately and on purpose!  However, given some of the points in the post do you honestly think prostitition will ever be legalized in this country?

And I love it!!! Thank you for the Devil's Advocate Generals version of this discussion. It does draw a lot of the question into perspective. Clearly it's a solid No to legalization of prostitution.

Myself, I like it just the way it is. If legalization brought the prices down and made sex for a fee more accessible, I'd still be seeing the girls in private places who ask for 3 bills and love what they do but are picky about their clientele.

(STAFF - the asshole remark was meant only as a humorous hook to the message. It was in no way meant to be abusive or inflammatory. Please don't moderate me. Thank you. riker)

...are tight on target.  It may be somewhat different in outher parts of the country, but in the greater Los Angeles area there are many illegal immigrants smuggled into the country Asian & Russian crime organizations.  They are forced into prostitution to repay their "debt" to the smugglers.  It's not hard to imagine that for the gals to break away from thse guys is at minimum difficult & not without "consequences."

Just today the newpapers reported on a case where 6 Ukrainians were convicted of the smuggling/prostitution racket...apparently involved a 100 or so women & netted the ring several hundred thousand dollars.  Who knows what other illegal activities those dollars may finance?  So while it's certainly true that on one hand it can be a victimless crime, in the larger view there certainly are victims...potentially many of them.

or at least have no effect on that going on anyway?

To put forth another contrary point to my original arguments; just think of the conditions which the women may endure in their home country.  One could argue the women choose to be brought to this country and work off the large debt to escape who knows what.  Also demonstrates that no matter how much we criticize our country there are people willing to sacrifice a great deal to gain entry.

If Clark County, aka Las Vegas, would legalize "it" as other counties in Nevada, such action would signal other large municipalities of the west,i.e. LA, Portland, Seattle, to pressure their state legislators to either decriminalize or legalize. Especially if Las Vegas' city revenue is greatly enhanced, the other cities would understand the revenue benefit of such legislation.  The problem in Las Vegas is that the Mormon population still has great influence in public policy and would spend millions to lobby against any change.  But lets hope logic would overcome religious dogma.

The reversal of the Flag Allegiance ban by the 9th court is perfect examples of the power religious activist have and the control they have over all branches of American government.  America in fact does have an established religion, Christianity, and public policies are directly established to mandate conformity by all citizens to its tenets.

The bill of rights has little value under the current rulers.  The issue with TBD is a bill of rights issue, that being the right of a citizen to engage in consensual sexual activity with or without consideration of money without interference or penalty by the state. Therefore, if prostitution, sodomy, fornication, adultery, etc., were legal throughout the country, there would be no criminal activity conducted by the owners of TBD resulting from the open exercise of their right to promote a legal service.  However, our court system is restricted under current court rules to allow such an argument as a defense. Also the courts, other than the 9th circuit court of appeals, are of heavily conservative persuasion and are not interested in striking down such prohibitions.  Best to move to Netherlands, Denmark, Germany or Russia were freedom and liberty have real meaning.

Nada (EOM)

You both raise valid points which aren't lost on me...I respect what you've both said.

As to the living conditions from which these ladies came, I don't personally know...it could well be that regardless they are better off here.  That being said, the few that I've known have related to me that they we lied to in the begining & may not have come if they knew what they were about to be forced into.  My truly personal knowledge (my opinions about the subject aside) based on those few interactions, & could well be a case of then lying to me...although they had absolutely nothing to gain by doing so.

I guess the bottom line to my take on the whole issue, at least this part of it, is two-fold...& keep in mind it's this particular segment of the industry I'm talking about.  

(1)  If the 'slave' is taken from a situation where she is starving to another where she receives enough sustanance to live, does this somehow justify the slavery?  

(2) Criminals such as those I've described do not usually limit themsevles to only one illegal activity...eventually they will branch out into anything where there is a buck to be made.  Dope?  Drive-by killings to protectect territory?  It's in the news almost every single day!  IMHO it's naive to think none of this happens, if nothing else at least an indirect, effect of that type of prostitution.

.

I believe that if you check my site out, you will know what I mean. It does not mean "legalizing it", it simply means partaking in a completely different hobby..

Love,
Grace