

Buying sex should not be legal - zabramow
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/08/29/opinion/buying-sex-should-not-be-legal.html

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noobiemcfoob
This article could have been better written, mainly by not writing it from
such an incensed position (former child prostitute? While I regret that the
author went through such a thing, the call to make sex work legal would hardly
have made her experiences legal).

The latter half of the article is more substantive, actually pointing out how
various approaches have fared around the world. But even this is poorly
reasoned and seems to believe we'll agree that the sex trade is just bad out
of hand.

The bits of Germany having "mega-brothels" or that New Zealand is seeing an
industry of "sex tourism" are hardly indictments from where I stand. If those
trades are legal and all involved are willful participants working for a
livable wage, what's the problem?

If that's the case in New Zealand and Germany, then I'd say both laws are
working as intended.

The goal of legalizing the sex trade is to prevent situations like the
author's from happening. A byproduct of that is likely to be a thriving - but
legal - sex trade where hopefully everyone is treated as a human being.

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kazinator
Agreed with you. This is full of holes. I don't know what to make of a
statement like "because the trade is socially sanctioned [in New Zealand],
there is no incentive for the government to provide exit strategies for those
who want to get out of it. These women are trapped." I don't see the logical
consequence; why isn't there an incentive to provide exit strategies out of
prostitution regardless of whether it is legal? It's not illegal to be
unemployed, yet governments offer programs to help people get employed. Or: we
don't have to make homelessness illegal before we bring in solutions for
housing.

Protecting minors is a separate issue from whether something is legal or not.
Trading cars is legal; selling a car to an eleven-year-old is not. To prevent
that, should we make auto trading illegal?

