3 ms·

>makes all of them worse This seems like a pretty outrageous claim. It seems obvious that: 1) There are moral hazards surrounding prostitution 2) The legal

by blhack 8y ago

>makes all of them worse This seems like a pretty outrageous claim. It seems obvious that: 1) There are moral hazards surrounding prostitution 2) The legal status of prostitution has a negative effect on the number of people participating in it. So while legalizing prostitution certainly could (and anecdotally would) negate some of the hazards, to say that it would negate all of them seems foolish, or at the very least extremely poorly reasoned.

shkkmo 8y ago
All you need to do is provide a example of a moral hazard that would not be negated by legalization.
- blhack 8y ago
  Incentivizing bringing either physical, emotional, or social harm to yourself. For instance: we don't allow people to work for less than minimum wage. We have things like OSHA which set minimum safe working requirements for dangerous jobs, etc. You may claim "yes, that's why we want sex-work regulated". Sex work already is regulated. Pornography is legal, stripping is legal, "cam" work is legal, burlesque is legal, etc. etc. The classic example is: suppose a drug addict who has a moral opposition to selling their body for sex, but is being coerced into doing so by their drug addiction. We have protective regulations around that which strongly disincentive it. Selling penetrative sex for money is where we as a society have drawn a line and said "everything up to this point is okay." Just like we drawn a line for dangerous working conditions and said "everything up to this point is okay". We're not saying that there are no risks to dangerous physical work (sex work included), we're saying that anything beyond the line is intolerable. -- Just to be clear: I'm not making some claim that strongly supports any side of this argument. I'm just annoyed by the claim that there is no discussion to be had here, and that the only reason that prostitution is illegal in most of the US is "Christians".
  - shkkmo 8y ago
    So I asked you for an example of a moral hazard that is not made worse by making prostitution illegal. Your example is "Incentivizing bringing either physical, emotional, or social harm to yourself." First off, that is an extremely broad moral hazard and one that applies to pretty much all types of employment and not just prostitution. Secondly, making prostition legal allows an organiztion like OSHA to set (and more importantly, enforce) safe working requirements. This is precisely and example of a moral hazard that is limited/negated by legalizatin. > I'm just annoyed by the claim that there is no discussion to be had here I've yet to see anyone make argument for keeping prostitution that isn't either A) Factually incorrect or B) Based on christianity. I'd be happy to discuss such an arguement if you have one. However, the real debate that we should be having is the best ways to legalize prostitution to make sure that the moral hazards are minimized. The "Scandinavian Approach" (make buying sex illegal but don't penalize selling) is certainly better than what we have in the US as it makes the justice system available to prostitutes who no longer face jail time for reporting crime committed against them. However helping buyers not get caught is a selling point for sellers, so it still drives the activity into hiding. Hidden activity is harder to regulate and increases the probability that violence can be committed against the sellers.

by blhack 8y ago

shkkmo 8y ago

All you need to do is provide a example of a moral hazard that would not be negated by legalization.

blhack 8y ago
Incentivizing bringing either physical, emotional, or social harm to yourself. For instance: we don't allow people to work for less than minimum wage. We have things like OSHA which set minimum safe working requirements for dangerous jobs, etc. You may claim "yes, that's why we want sex-work regulated". Sex work already is regulated. Pornography is legal, stripping is legal, "cam" work is legal, burlesque is legal, etc. etc. The classic example is: suppose a drug addict who has a moral opposition to selling their body for sex, but is being coerced into doing so by their drug addiction. We have protective regulations around that which strongly disincentive it. Selling penetrative sex for money is where we as a society have drawn a line and said "everything up to this point is okay." Just like we drawn a line for dangerous working conditions and said "everything up to this point is okay". We're not saying that there are no risks to dangerous physical work (sex work included), we're saying that anything beyond the line is intolerable. -- Just to be clear: I'm not making some claim that strongly supports any side of this argument. I'm just annoyed by the claim that there is no discussion to be had here, and that the only reason that prostitution is illegal in most of the US is "Christians".
- shkkmo 8y ago
  So I asked you for an example of a moral hazard that is not made worse by making prostitution illegal. Your example is "Incentivizing bringing either physical, emotional, or social harm to yourself." First off, that is an extremely broad moral hazard and one that applies to pretty much all types of employment and not just prostitution. Secondly, making prostition legal allows an organiztion like OSHA to set (and more importantly, enforce) safe working requirements. This is precisely and example of a moral hazard that is limited/negated by legalizatin. > I'm just annoyed by the claim that there is no discussion to be had here I've yet to see anyone make argument for keeping prostitution that isn't either A) Factually incorrect or B) Based on christianity. I'd be happy to discuss such an arguement if you have one. However, the real debate that we should be having is the best ways to legalize prostitution to make sure that the moral hazards are minimized. The "Scandinavian Approach" (make buying sex illegal but don't penalize selling) is certainly better than what we have in the US as it makes the justice system available to prostitutes who no longer face jail time for reporting crime committed against them. However helping buyers not get caught is a selling point for sellers, so it still drives the activity into hiding. Hidden activity is harder to regulate and increases the probability that violence can be committed against the sellers.