This is a short opinion piece and I welcome any opposing viewpoints
I wanted to write my thoughts on prostitution after recent news broke in the US involving a prostitution sting, ensuring a few big names in the sports industry. I do not care for this story at all hence why I am not posting a link. Just mentioning why I thought of this topic in the first place.
Prostitution is the oldest profession in the world and for some reason, most of the world has made it illegal. I do not know the origins of this decision. Most of them have religious roots that criminalizes sex outside of marriage. But regardless, I think that it should be legalized and regulated.
There will never be a perfect solution to everything, but in this case the pros out weigh the cons immensely making this in my opinion a better solution than the ones currently in place.
When something becomes illegal, that doesn't mean that the supply and demand has been erased, it just means that the market is now compromised by criminals. Considering prostitution's history, it is safe to assume that there will always be a demand for sex. That is just our biology and it is part of who we are. Since the market is now turned over to the criminals, the honest participants are not afforded any protection from the law.
Not only that many of these people are from low income and impoverished environments. Many of them have little to no education and job skills. If we ban prostitution and "save" these sex workers, how will they continue to support themselves? There are 2 possible solutions to this.
They will head back into the streets and instead of offering prostitution, they resort to robbery and murder.
Through social welfare, we may be able to give them free training for job skills. But the market for rank and file cubicle warriors is so oversaturated these days, that even landing the "skilled" job will be difficult let alone one will pay as much as the sex job.
Another reason is that I believe what two consenting adults do behind closed doors is none of anyone's business. The sex worker should be able to do whatever he/she wants to do with their body. The same goes for the customer and his/her money. If they want to spend their money for sexual services then that is their right. Their body, their choice. Their money, their choice.
Lastly this creates a win-win-win situation for everyone. The government wins because it gets additional tax revenue from an industry worth billions. The sex worker win because their work will become legitimate, making them entitled to benefits, protection, and rights they wouldn't have otherwise. The customer wins because....well you know why.
The only losers here are the pimps who exploit sex workers financially, physically and emotionally while having a monopoly on the market.
So there is my argument for legalizing prostitution.
Thanks for reading!