[plikan13]

The problem is that when you hire the services of a prostitute, you will probably have no idea about the situation of that person. Maybe this person is in charge of his/her life and is making a well-informed choice. But maybe this person is coerced into prostitution. In that case you will be financially supporting a very wrong thing, and you have no way of knowing. I think the question whether prostitution should be legal is much less important than the conclusion that being a customer is morally indefensible.

[_bfhp]

Exactly, johns should be penalized. We sanction entire countries because of the conditions of the workers in manufacturing industries, don't we? But we simply can't touch the sex industry because that would be restricting "free choice"...

[tormeh]

Farming in California is built on trafficked, essentially slave, labor, but I guess the much smaller problems in prostitution are a more romantic target.

[_bfhp]

Smaller? By what metric?

[stcredzero]

Frequency of piecework? I bet there are a lot more instances of "picking a fruit" per year by trafficked farm worker than there are instances of sex by a trafficked sex worker.

[_bfhp]

Why are you referring to rape as "sex"? Rape is a violent crime every time it happens. I think we can recognize one issue as valuable without putting down the other.

[stcredzero]

Rape is non-consensual sexual activity. If you want to establish a convention where "sex" only means consensual sex and "rape" only means non-consensual sexual activity, then I'll consent to that. There are far more intellectually honest ways of establishing such a convention than this sort of sideways putting words into someone's mouth.

[tsotha]

Rape is sex. It may be violent. It may be criminal. It may be abhorrent. But it's still sex. The feminists are really out to lunch on this one.

[tsotha]

By this logic prostitution is no different than any economic transaction. Goods are made by people who are virtually, if not in fact, slaves. Does that mean you refuse to buy anything you didn't make with your own hands?

[sukilot]

And indeed, consumption of sweatshop (and polluting) labor is a huge problem, and the Buy Local movement is at attempt to combat it.

[tsotha]

It's not realistic, though. You can't possibly research the povenance of every garment, food item, piece of electronics, drop of oil, shelter, and building material you buy. It's impossible.