If we "Legalized Hookers" wouldn't our Political System be the Better for It?

[KoKo]

Since so many seem to use Hookers of Either Sex...shouldn't we just DECLARE IT ALL LEGAL...and vote for them as the Perverts they are? Or....are they really seen as Perverts...if they vote for OUR OWN ISSUES as Representativise?

:shrug: That's the Question! Legalize it and they have "no fear" ...but still take in the Campaign Contributions from Scum Lobbyists who are "whores of another kind" ...OR...only put in "Mr. Clean Jeans" as your chosen Candidate...who is morally correct "at home" but a PERVERT for LOBBYISTS...

It's a hard question..to deal with.. :shrugh: WHAT DO YOU THINK?

[TahitiNut]

1. I thought our Poltical System already WAS legalized hooking.

:shrug:

[BigDaddy44]

3. DING DING DING

You're exactly right.

[KoKo]

8. Well YEAH... they are a bunch of Paid Off Pimps and Whores...but shouldn't we be BETTER

than this? Shouldn't we work for better than this? Or, do we give up and accept the "system...AS IS?" :shrug:

[lapfog_1]

2. Fine by me... I have never seen escorts or

"houses of ill repute" being a legal problem... I would still keep street walkers illegal. And pimping would go away except for the legal and taxable position of house madam.

[islandmkl]

4. Congress thinks prostitution IS legal....

[grannylib]

5. Of course it should be legal -

Get rid of the pimps, regulate for health and safety, tax, etc. - and free up law enforcement to deal with REAL problems.

[varelse]

6. I think we'd need to be careful to clear up a few issues first

Unemployment benefits are tied to active job search... If a person is collecting unemployment and declines a job offer to work as a prostitute, would the person lose the right to collect unemployment benefits?

Worker safety regulations/workers comp/public health - sex workers (and their customers) face many on the job health risks and safety hazards - and before this job class could be made legal, safety standards would need to be developed to protect workers rights and public health. (could existing regulations in Nevada serve as a model?)

Sexual harrassment and general harrassment laws would need to be modified in many states, including California, for this to work. In any other job or profession, a worker whose boss demanded that s(he) submit to sexual contact with the boss or even with an outside contractor or another employee, in exchange for continued employment, promotion, or pay increases would be liable for "quid pro quo" harrassment lawsuit. (That's in California, other states have less stringent harrassment laws probably.

Liability insurance - since this is a business which is risky to both clients and workers, should there be a requirement for the worker (or the business, if it is an employer/employee situation) to carry liability insurance against the possibility of damages incurred due to transmission of STD's or excessive (unintended) injuries inflicted on the client (obviously, not all sex for hire is of the "vanilla" type)?

[Peace Patriot]

14. Good questions--which have been answered in countries that have legalized

prostitution. That would be a good place to start. How have others answered these questions? But, PLEASE, let's get started in getting rid of our Puritan morality laws, and busting up this goddamned police state!

Eliot Spitzer could get elected President if he would do that. Really and truly. Turn the whole situation around. Expose the police state (which he knows well--he was part of it); descry the trillions of dollars wasted on putting people in prison who have harmed no one. We could pay for universal health care, and a lot else, if we would just STOP making war on peoples' morals.

[KoKo]

22. NPR...did a story on European Countries that Legalize Prostitution and they found that it doesn't

stop "Sex Slavery." I wonder if NPR has gone to the "dark side" on that one They never gave satistics to support but just went off into "straw man" discussion about "Sex Slavery." It was Bizarre. I'd like to know if legalizing Prostitution would stop both folks like Spitzer and those who choose Same Sex to pay for play would change things with our politicians. Or, would there always be folks looking to PAY for DIAMOND GIRLS AND GUYS? Because their head is so big and stuffed with power...they gotta be "High Rollers" to feel good about themselves when Power of Office alone isn't enough...they still feel inadequate? Is it a psychological problem...neurosis that comes with those who gain GREAT POWER? :shrug: Something we should just expect that comes as "part of the territory with Political, Business and Religious Leaders?

[femrap]

7. I was hoping we could offer good paying

jobs to women that didn't require sexual acts.

Another thought...for years we have heard males say that a woman could never hold high office because of her hormones. Yet male's testosterone seems to make them do the most stupid of acts. It's as if they live by instinct, not reason...taking extreme risks. Maybe males are not fit to hold high office...maybe we wouldn't have all of these wars and violence?

[KoKo]

10. There are still too many "folks" who require "services" ...but to get thrown out of office over

"Hooker Gates" puts too many in peril. What about that "cute gal...nice lady ..up the road" who isn't gonna charge you $5,000 an "incident" that is really a cool person? No Fee...No Charge...just a good person to be around.

NO..it's only the "Swelled Head's the Power Drunks" who seem to require some "Seven Diamonds Call Girl" so that they can show they are "ABOVE IT ALL."

Amazing...that Spitzer thought he was "Running with the SAME CROWD...he Proscecuted!" BIG HEAD SPITZER...managed to go down to the level of those he was going after as DA!

How the MIGHTY FALL under THEIR OWN PRETENSES...and PETTYNESS! :puke:

[femrap]

16. I think you missed my point.....

Anyway...are you suggesting he should go bug 'cute gal..nice lady' for a freebie??? Did you forget he is married? Or is that your answer when your hormones go wacky? 'Hey...there's a gal down the street...I need to use your body for a while...thx'

I bet he made his 3 teenage daughters very proud. Are men fit to hold high office?

Go away...I think my skin just crawled away.

[KoKo]

18. If he was looking for something "REAL" and not "VICE SQUAD" he coulda found it somewhere else

is what I'm saying. I wonder what his "three daughters" think of their poppy paying $5,000 to some agency who gave him something he could find in any dark corner of the internet? What is a daughter to think of a father who does this? :shrug: That's what I'm saying, here.

[femrap]

23. You prove my point.

You can't even see what porn has done to our culture. Hey, you don't like your wife? Here's something that'll get you off. Did you ever think that Spitz has some kind of fetish that isn't mainstream...yet?

Do you know how many college guys rather stay home and jack off with their computers than date? Why? Well, the counselors that they are seeing says: "The guys see real girlfriends as nothing more than bad porn stars."

You don't even realize how gross you sound...you look at women as just receptacles?

You make the big deal over the damn money...how dare he spend that money on a woman? No woman is worth that. He comes from an extremely wealthy family....he can afford it.

And your stupid shrugging just shows you don't care....OMG, humans are devolving.

Your sexism is so alive and well...and you are oblivious to it. Go away...

I pity the women in your life.

Ignored.

[mondo joe]

25. There are male prostitutes - particulary with gay male customers.

Being male and having access to good paying jobs didn't prevent them from being prostitutes.

Some people simply prefer that to other sorts of work.

[Lint Head]

9. It would be better for everyone.

:dem:

[eShirl]

11. well it's been legal for a while in part of the U.S. (part of Nevada)

come to think of it, why aren't all these politicians going THERE where they wouldn't be breaking the law?

[Skittles]

12. no

just because it would be legal, it would not make it any less disgusting

[Peace Patriot]

15. Says you. We have no right to judge acts between consenting adults, as

"disgusting"--whether money changes hands or not. You may find it "disgusting" for YOU. Someone else may not. And I would prefer--and certainly hope that one day Americans create--an enlightened society, in which what people do in private IS NOBODY ELSE'S BUSINESS.

[rucky]

13. It has a built-in penalty when they get caught.

so why the hell not?

[apocalypsehow]

17. I'm pretty torn on this one:

On the one hand, in a society with an inherent equality of power between men and women, there would not be a problem with legalizing prostitution. We don't live in that society, yet. This is still a patriarchal culture.

On the other hand, I have some major privacy problems with telling folks on what terms they may have sexual relations, as long as those terms presume at the outset that those relations are 100% consensual on the part of both actors (and both actors are of age, of course).

To the extent we are going to criminalize it, I believe we need to focus the punitive aspect of the law on the Johns, not the women. Sweden has a system much like this.

As I said, I'm torn on the question.

:shrug:

[KoKo]

19. Even if you "legalize Prostitution" does it change what Spitzer did to his Family?

and his three daughters? That if there were "marriage problems" he couldn't have found "companioship and sex" without paying a "Diamond Girl Hooker's Agency $5,000 or more...for a One Night Stand?

It was a POWER TRIP...but why did a guy with ALL THAT POWER...need that "TRIP?" That's what I'm asking.

[apocalypsehow]

20. Oh, I agree with you 100% on that point. I was just thinking out loud (posting out loud, LOL) about

the larger issue surrounding what Spitzer is in trouble for. But I agree with you, what he's done to his family on a personal level is unconscionable.

[KoKo]

21. How do we split out what we do to those "around us" who "hurt" just for a "Power Trip"

because you get a BIG HEAD and think you are "above it all" is the nitty gritty...I'm trying to get to.

Why do these folks seem to NEED TO DO THIS? They hurt so many and in the end...they hurt their families and those who voted for and believed in them. :shrug: It's harmful to society and our political process and devastating to their families. And...for WHAT? a night or two of "FANTASY?" No COMMITMENT...until it BITES THEM IN THE ASS with a PROSECUTION?

[Peace Patriot]

27. No, I don't agree with this. We have no idea what "Spitzer did to his family"

and it is none of our business. It is projection--making up stories in your head--to presume to know why Spitzer did this (i.e., that it was a power trip--maybe it wasn't, maybe he felt helpless, confused, curious, lonely--we don't know), or what it means to his family. Who knows? Maybe they are relieved that he is out of politics. Maybe his political life was corrosive of his family relationships. Maybe they're glad it's out in the open, and not a deep dark secret any more. I don't know. You don't know. And it is none of our business. And none of the voters' business either, in my opinion. It is NOT a criminal matter. American society is so infantile about this! The rest of the civilized world laughs at our insane Puritan hypocrisy. And it gives horrible kinds of people--fascists, spies, blackmailers, Bushites--untoward power over us and those who represent us. Do we expect our reps to be saints, for godssakes? The fascist media is just playing us. They really are.

I know Spitzer bought into this police state. THAT I DO blame him for. And if he wants to redeem himself, he will lead a movement to de-construct the police state, re-write our laws, and empty our prisons of the 70% of people who shouldn't be there--for prostitution, for drug use, for drug peddling, for minor theft, and whom we are unjustly incarcerating for 10 years, 20 years and more, at a minimum cost of $30,000 a year. We would be better off to just GIVE them the money, to start a new life with--rather than treat them the way we treat prisoners--which is a disgrace to our nation. BILLIONS and BILLIONS of dollars spent on petty, non-violent crime, to support police state PROFITEERS. It's sick. And we desperately need courageous leadership to remedy it. And if Elliot Spitzer would lead that crusade, I'd vote for him for President. We could feed, clothe and educate half the poor people in the world, with the money we spend on behavior that shouldn't even be a crime. Not to mention providing a few services HERE, like universal health care.

[mondo joe]

24. Prostitution sould be legal; sex lives are private so I don't see what they ought to have to do

with elections.

[Thothmes]

28. The way I see it

Yes sex lives are private. But if an elected official cannot live up to the vows he took when he married, how am I to know that he will live up to his oath of office. I do expect integrity in an elected official. Cheating on ones wife, a little graft on the side, a couple of shady business deals, a
resume that was sexed up all show a lack of integrety. That is one of the cardinal principals that I look for when I vote for a candidate.

[AlphaCentauri]

26. Legalize prostitution, we are paying to much to see others prostitute them selfs

Every pornographic movie is an act of prostitution but its legal (double standard)

Many rapers would be happy knowing that they can hire someone instead of forcing them.

[guitar man]

29. It would be nice

If the nation could become much less obsessed with sex and a lot more interested in ending this damned war, straightening up the economy, passing universal healthcare and fostering economic and social justice in general...

I know, I know, it's way too much to ask......:(

[depakid]

30. Austalians certainly think so...

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....