Should prostitution be legal?

[Sanguine]

You don’t think the government would handle prostitution better than law breaking pimps and sex traffickers?

No, the government wouldn't.

[Hoodat]

I look forward to using this against you in future debates.

Please do.  I use it all the time.  But I have serious doubts that you believe likewise.

[Dexter]

That is not true. It degrades culture and degrades women. I have grandchildren here.

Bullshit sommore. Libertarianism is directly couched in federalism. Civil-libertarianism (Goldwater conservative) is not against law. It is *FOR* law and order. It prefers local law to all others. within the strict confines of an originalist reading of the Constitution, and the constitutions of the various states respectively, with sovereignty housed as close to the people as possible.

What you propose stinks of liberal anarchism, not to be confused with libertarian principles in the least.

Your first mistake is in the abject failure to recognize what prostitution does to a community - To the degradation of women's honor. What it does to promote adultery and divorce, and how it tears families to pieces. To sanction prostitution is to lend it credence - to favor it over the welfare of families and a decent environment to raise children. It endorses broken homes.

Your second mistake is to lend even more power to an overweening federal government, wishing for a federal decree to enforce your ludicrous proposal - No libertarian of any stripe would endorse that.

If you want to try it, then go where it is already legal, or change it where you are. You have zero right to impose it upon me and mine by federal fiat.

And don't try to wrap yourself in libertarianism anymore. It makes your ass look big.

People are going to engage in prostitution either way. Legalization would mean less victims, less STDs, less all of the bad stuff. Your way is futile and illogical. It’s a waste of police resources and it restricts individual liberty. I’d be fine with state legalization by the way, but you’d fight against that too. This is a conversation about the viability of legal prostitution. You think prostitution should stay illegal and I disagree with you.

[Hoodat]

The legal businesses that open up and take over the demand for prostitution will pay taxes.

And women who are collecting unemployment will be expected to take legal prostitution jobs lest they lose their benefits.

[Hoodat]

People are going to engage in prostitution either way. Legalization would mean less victims, less STDs, less all of the bad stuff. Your way is futile and illogical. It’s a waste of police resources and it restricts individual liberty. I’d be fine with state legalization by the way, but you’d fight against that too. This is a conversation about the viability of legal prostitution. You think prostitution should stay illegal and I disagree with you.

Shouldn't it be up to each State to determine whether prostitution is legal or not?

[roamer_1]

I look forward to using this against you in future debates.

You'd do better to listen to him. He's as libertarian as they come.

[Dexter]

And women who are collecting unemployment will be expected to take legal prostitution jobs lest they lose their benefits.

They don’t have to apply for those jobs if they don’t want them. Those jobs wouldn’t have existed without legalized prostitution anyway. They can apply to other jobs and meet their quota. Maintaining unemployment benefits is absurdly easy.

[Dexter]

He's as libertarian as they come.

I disagree.

[sneakypete]

No, it is an activity that no one should participate in.

@roamer_1

Maybe,but you don't get to make the rules for other adults.

[Dexter]

@roamer_1

Maybe,but you don't get to make the rules for other adults.

He disagrees. Consenting adults shouldn’t be allowed to engage in prostitution and that doesn’t conflict with libertarianism apparently.

[sneakypete]

I am absolutely consistent in principle. I am Conservative, and therefore a federalist. Law is fine with me... Local law. You are trying to shove your immorality down my throat from a statist position. Federal law.

Never content to let the various states work according to their design...
Like I said. You literally have no right to impose your sensibilities on me.
Do your thing where you are, and leave me the hell alone.

@roamer_1

Are you somehow so confused you think that if prostitution is made legal in your state you will be required to participate?

[sneakypete]

Bullshit. My views on this are federalist. I am not telling you what to do. YOU are telling ME what to do. Butt the hell out of my business and worry about your own. If you don't like how it is where you are, then change it there, or move where it suits you better.

You are not advocating for an oppressed minority - you are advocating for the tyranny of the minority, which is a wholly different thing.

If literally everyone is for prayer in school, and one atheist objects, according to you, the atheist's tyranny can be imposed upon all the rest. From 3000 miles away.

Bullshit. Pure and simple. If the atheist doesn't like it, then the atheist is free to move elsewhere.

Prostitution is the same sort of thing.
If your sensibilities endorse the degradation of women then go where such a thing is acceptable, don't impose your bullshit on me.

@roamer_1

You have it 100 percent backwards. YOU are guilty of everything you charge Dexter with when it comes to the power of government to legislate morality.

[roamer_1]

People are going to engage in prostitution either way.

I know. Making it 'legal', like 'gay marriage', only serves to legitimize it.

Legalization would mean less victims, less STDs, less all of the bad stuff.

A bold statement without proof.

Your way is futile and illogical.

I would say the same, the other way around.

It’s a waste of police resources

Another unproven statement. There will still be unlicensed whores. And Johns that will use them.

and it restricts individual liberty.

No.
Liberty has responsibilities.
What you are thinking of is freedom.
Freedom has consequences.

I’d be fine with state legalization by the way, but you’d fight against that too.

Sure I would, as is my right and my wont. The point being that it is already legal in a state. Go there and be happy.

This is a conversation about the viability of legal prostitution. You think prostitution should stay illegal and I disagree with you.

All you have to do is look to Vegas, and how well the Chicken Ranch was managed by your dear federal government. Those two things should tell you the tale.

And you are quite within your right to disagree with me. Where your right ends is in your imposition upon me.

[Dexter]

Shouldn't it be up to each State to determine whether prostitution is legal or not?

Sure, but that isn’t the debate. It’s a deflection. We’re debating the merits of legalized prostitution and whether or not keeping it illegal infringes on individual liberty.

[sneakypete]

And women who are collecting unemployment will be expected to take legal prostitution jobs lest they lose their benefits.

@Hoodat

Now THERE is an argument I have never heard before.

[roamer_1]

I disagree.

Disagree all you like, he has the mileage in this forum to prove it. You do not.

[Dexter]

I know. Making it 'legal', like 'gay marriage', only serves to legitimize it.

A bold statement without proof.

I would say the same, the other way around.

Another unproven statement. There will still be unlicensed whores. And Johns that will use them.

No.
Liberty has responsibilities.
What you are thinking of is freedom.
Freedom has consequences.

Sure I would, as is my right and my wont. The point being that it is already legal in a state. Go there and be happy.

All you have to do is look to Vegas, and how well the Chicken Ranch was managed by your dear federal government. Those two things should tell you the tale.

And you are quite within your right to disagree with me. Where your right ends is in your imposition upon me.

Oh, well I believe in liberty and freedom.

[roamer_1]

@roamer_1

Maybe,but you don't get to make the rules for other adults.

Sure I do. Adults make rules for other adults all the damn time.

[roamer_1]

@roamer_1

Are you somehow so confused you think that if prostitution is made legal in your state you will be required to participate?

No

[Hoodat]

@Hoodat

Now THERE is an argument I have never heard before.

They actually do this in Germany.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/1482371/If-you-dont-take-a-job-as-a-prostitute-we-can-stop-your-benefits.html

[roamer_1]

@roamer_1

You have it 100 percent backwards. YOU are guilty of everything you charge Dexter with when it comes to the power of government to legislate morality.

Absolutely wrong.
He is advocating federal imposition by dictate.
I am advocating local dictate by representatives who live here.

Both are legislating morality.

[Hoodat]

Oh, well I believe in liberty and freedom.

Do you believe that the people of each State through their elected representatives should have the liberty to decide whether or not prostitution should be legal in their State?

[roamer_1]

Oh, well I believe in liberty and freedom.

Never the two shall meet.

[Dexter]

They actually do this in Germany.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/1482371/If-you-dont-take-a-job-as-a-prostitute-we-can-stop-your-benefits.html

An isolated incident in another country, and the article says it’s unclear if the unnamed woman lost her benefits. I’d say there is a pretty good chance she didn’t. I also think Germany would be interested in fixing an oversight like that. This is not an argument. Women would not be forced into the sex industry by the government.

[sneakypete]

Sure I do. Adults make rules for other adults all the damn time.

@roamer_1

OK,fair enough. I am going to make a rule that REQUIRES YOU to engage prostitutes.

Turn about is fair play.