Reply #30: Austalians certainly think so...

[depakid]

Spitzer's spanking shows just how weird the US is

"It's still the same old story, a fight for love and glory, a case of do or die. The world will always welcome lovers, as time goes by.

That's OK for Casablanca, but if you are just about anywhere in the US and are paying the lover, you are a criminal and can be locked-up for anything up to three years. A poll in 2004 reported that 15 per cent of all American men had paid for sex, which seems a generous understatement.

According to Wikipedia, the only places in the US where the buying and selling of sexual services is not illegal are Nevada and Rhode Island.

In Rhode Island it is legal as long as it happens indoors. In Nevada prostitution is permissible everywhere except in Reno and Las Vegas, the two places in the state where you get the impression it's compulsory.

It's a weird country, and the Spitzer story shows just how disconnected and alien a place it is. What are we doing going into wars, signing treaties and free-trade deals with people who want to lock up purveyors and consumers of commercial sex?

Just look at the dazzling array of offences that can flow from the horizontal collaboration between the (former) governor and Ms Dupre.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/spitzers-spanking-shows-just-how-weird-the-us-is/2008/03/13/1205126107123.html

Note: prostitution is legal in Australia, but I don't know the specifics about how it works....