good god, the carrying on yesterday: “eliot spitzer involved in prostitution ring” when all he did was book a hooker. yes, he did it in a very stupid way (there’s a hilarious post about it from chris kelly), but that doesn’t make it organized crime.
if i get my pants altered at a place run by the mob, am i part of a dry-cleaning ring?
the real problem is that prostitution is illegal. sex for pay has been around longer than christianity and it’s not going anywhere. whether you approve or disapprove (i don’t find it particularly savory myself), a little less hysteria and a bit more common sense in how we approach this as a society would go a long way.
if spitzer wanted to be “smart” about it and not leave the trail of breadcrumbs that will cost him his job, he could simply have gotten a girl off the street. what a wonderful option! and the only reason there are girls to be gotten on the street is the law.
prostitution is legal in many other places — puritanical america is one of the few countries arrogant enough to believe it can actually legislate human nature out of existence. and, exactly as we have done with our draconian (and practically medieval) drug laws is simply to put a lot of people at risk and in prison. that’s it. that’s the final and only result. nothing is prevented or eliminated or reduced. more people get hurt. the law guarantees that they will.
and no, legalizing prostitution is not likely to attract thousands of women who otherwise wouldn’t do it into the profession. selling your ass is not the top career choice of most women, more usually they’re driven to it out of necessity and the lack of other options. great. so she’s already up shit’s creek, let’s throw her in jail if she gets caught trying to make the rent.
nobody wins. not the pros, not the customers. careers are destroyed (no doubt we’re all about to learn far, far more about eliot spitzer’s life than anybody ever cared to know), diseases are traded like baseball cards, women are left to the mercy of the occasional psychopathic client (and the vengeful attention of the IRS) and men are robbed by pimps or in setups most often arranged by girls with monster drug habits. ALL of these are side-effects not of prostitution itself, but of our laws forbidding it.
i want a government that lets people make adult decisions for themselves and spends its time instead trying to, oh, let’s say, reduce carbon emissions, get the garbage recycled, stop our food and rivers and seas from being poisoned, get some of the guns off the street. that’s where the government can make a positive difference, not in your bedroom (or your uterus or your little tin of hydroponic weed).
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