Chatting with Wellness Industry Workers

[Virtual Bison]

something to read if you're in favor of legalized prostitution.[/url]

It's so easy for those of us to say, "Freedom!"  Yet, in reality, our freedom to pay for sex comes at the expense of a sex slave.

I'm sure some of you can make libertarian arguments in favor of legalized prostitution.  None of them will be arguments I have not thought of or considered.

In reality, centers where prostitution is legal in form or substance - like Amsterdam and San Francisco - are also centers of sex slavery.  This is not abstract argument or a priori philosophical nonsense.  This is empirical fact.

How can you support legalized prostitution when it will – in fact - lead to sexual slavery?

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I think we need to draw the line between exploitation and free association.

If you violate the rights of someone else when you pursue sexual gratification than you are committing a crime. That is how it should be.

I do not believe in men or women having sex with minors. I do not believe that anyone should be coerced into having sex.

But I do know that there are men and women who willfully engage in sex for money. Many of them do, in fact make very good livlihoods in the sex trade.

Not that I think that its right or moral or just for people to have sex for money. But I look at it this way...

You can go to an internet chat room, a bar, cafe or laundermat and meet someone, have sex and be done with it and nobody will charge you with a crime. It does not matter if the sex is meaningful or if its a fling. The participants can be married or single. They may even lie about their maritial status. And nobody cares.

So why is it that if any money changes hands it becomes a crime?

In many countries of the world prostitution is legal and open. Sex workers are not expoited and are often in labor unions. The state gets its cut of the money and underaged and expolited sex workers can get help. In fact if you bring anything into the open, whether it is sex or drugs or whatever you can regulate it a lot better.