Wacky Wednesday--Prostitution Should Be Legal

Note: Before reading the following arguments, please understand that they are not what I believe. On Wednesdays, I deliberately argue for wrong ideas, challenging my listeners to call and defend the obvious right answer, which is usually far harder than one would expect. This is a summary of what Wacky Andrew will be arguing, not a representation of what real Andrew believes.

~Our goal should be that prostitution be safe, legal, and rare.
~We could protect the women involved from the usual dangers of crime, disease, and pimps.
~Only legal trades generate tax revenue.
~It’s a reality right now, so obviously efforts to make it illegal haven’t worked.
~How can the world’s oldest profession be illegal?
~What’s the difference between giving a girl jewelry to stay with you over time and giving her money to be with you once?
~Isn’t marriage itself even an economic proposition based on giving a woman money for her various services as she chooses not to work?
~Given the legality of contraception, adultery, and premarital sex, it’s hard to see how you can craft a philosophically coherent argument against legalizing prostitution.
~Doesn’t the principle of privacy established in Griswold v CT, Roe v Wade, and Lawrence v TX require this?
~How can you have legal pornography (including the making of it) and keep prostitution illegal?
~Would you rather have a lusty teenager go to a professional or date your daughter?
~Would you rather have a lusty man pay a prostitute or try to seduce your wife?
~When it’s illegal, you don’t know whether a guy avoids it for fear or character. If it were accepted, you’d learn for sure who the decent guys are.
~Should a man be banished to loneliness and frustration only because he can’t convince women to be with him free of charge?
~Look at how much simpler this would make the exotic dancer industry.
~Who is the victim in a consensual sex act?
~You can pay for a massage, a model, a conversationalist, and you can even indulge in the lewdest of acts on the phone for money. Why not this?
~How else do you get rid of organized crime but by taking away their industries?

Links:
Prostitution Pro-Con
Prostitution Research and Education (Browse around)
How Prostitution works by Joe Parker
Prostitution as violence against women by CATW
Information on Proposition K by YesOnPropK.org
Decriminalizing prostitution divides San Francisco by LA Times
Vote yes on Prop K by SF Chronicle
Should prostitution be legal? by Alternet.org
SF task force on prostitution 1996 report by Bayswan.org
Legalize Prostitution by Liberator.net