Brothels - should they be legalised everywhere?

I mean, just cos they dance the go-go...

have you been to germany?

I think you were misled on the program you watched. I was under the impression that prosititution and brothels have been legal in certain counties in Nevada for a quite a long time (ie, decades). Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

I admit what I'm about to say is a bit of a stretch and uber-pedantic, but i can think of many office jobs in the U.S. that are analagous to this, yet never receive the same criticism or scrutiny. The only difference being the mental toll as opposed to the physical toll.

(disclaimer: i may severely regret this post later as those more wise than me will point out more obvious differences, but I'm starting to get more defensive of people who choose an "exploitive" career, when so many "accepted" career choices in america are just as "exploitive" but in different ways)

Prostitution shouldn't be legal, it should be mandatory! Oh, wait, that sounds kind of.......

Hmm... What about S&M? What if one woman in her contract says it is ok to, I dunno, bite her for example. And some client bites her neck too hard and she bleeds to death... Hmm...

Last roundup at the Mustang Ranch
Bordellos R Us: In the Nevada desert, a new management style is coming to the world's oldest profession.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Douglas Cruickshank

August 12, 1999 | "It's sure been a wild ride," said a former working girl on Monday as the feds shut down America's most famous legal brothel after its owners were convicted of fraud. "It's the end of the road for the Mustang Ranch," she sighed.

The Mustang, a 104-room bordello on a 440-acre spread near Reno, Nev., was established by Joe Conforte, a onetime cabdriver, in 1955. Sixteen years later, he won a court case that paved the way for the legalization of prostitution in Nevada -- where whether to sanction or forbid the establishments is left up to county government. Twelve of the state's 17 counties now permit the operation of bordellos. Indeed, not since New Orleans' legendary Storyville has prostitution in the United States had such a large, legal land base, and Storyville was a mere neighborhood on the edge of the French Quarter, not a vast slab of sagebrush-dotted desert.
http://www.salon.com/people/rogue/1999/08/12/mustang/

Let's all have a bake sale to save Mustang Ranch.

This is true - basic market economics really. Prostitutes in brothels are technically employees, street-walking prostitues can be self-employed. Therefore, brothel owners and staff are taking a cut of any fee, the prostitutes themselves would make less than they could make on the street. And who becomes a prostitute unless they are desparate for cash.

Or do brothels charge more?

And streetwalker almost never work for themselves. There's always a pimp lurking in the shadows ready to take 3/4 of the money. Also, it's supply AND demand at work. I don't think a lot of the customers will want to go to a brothel where they can be seen, recognized, registered, get their coupon booklet stamped, etc. They'll always get a quickie from a streetwalker in the car even though she almost certainly has AIDS.

I'm not against legalization at all: I'm mostly libertarian in principle on most issues. I just don't think it will change that much in this case.

This is different from prostitution in part because as I commented above, not everyone is comfortable walking into a brothel and being identified as a regular customer. People want the anonymity. That will make it hard to regulate. Even though it's always with us, prostitution is hardly part of the mainstream, whereas drinking always has been. But I'm still not opposed to legalizing prostitution because it may help a few people. Just not the ones who need it most.

Not all women will choose this profession Dave q!!

yes, on a conversation with boss level. but no, not in a peer group level. i mean, no one is ever going to be embarrassed about smoking a joint or doing a line are they?

you're seen as a sad loser if you have to pay to fuck someone

This is the urgent and key point. But is it socially more acceptable on a trip to Amsterdam in a way it wouldn't be at home, like its all considered to be part of the whole decadent dirty party?

similarly doesn't the extra-legality of a profession cut against ability to organize, etc.?

also the current shady system is about as coercively top-down as it gets in the worst poss. way.

also mark all this stuff about the third world seems somewhat true (i.e. conditions *are* much worse there, but also for say illegal immigrants BROUGHT from there to europe etc. to work in the same trade) but aren't you also presupposing some sort of constant quality of shady evilness which if disappated in one area just moves to another, like some sort of wack-a-mole? doesn't broad living standard, quality of life, degree of development of economy affect social attitudes towards sex &c as well?

Actually despite legal brothels here there is still a parallel illegal industry. There was a horrible case here recently in which it was found that a well paid tax inspector and his wife were bringing in young women from SE Asia illegally and basically holding them in bondage. It's horrible to think that men would frequent such places knowing the violence and exploitation that enables them to function.

The Lusty Lady has actually been unionized for several years, but more importantly it is employee-owned and co-operated, making it the first strip club of it's kind. There's a documentary about it called: "Live Nude Girls Unite!" that's pretty good (and funny!).

It's right across the street from the old Cocodrie Club and my favorite Italian restaurant in SF.

I had a girlfriend for some months who used a wheelchair. There are a few extra difficulties, but it is perfectly possible, though I guess if a man is paralysed below the waist there are some limitations, for example.

Owner seeks $7M for Chicken Ranch brothel
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=BRF%20Chicken%20Ranch%20Sale

I don't see how prostitution benefits society in the long run. Perhaps if you have real social handicaps, but prostitutes attract drugs and violence. I mean, I'm as libertarian as anyone, but practically speaking, a world without prostitution is more realistic than a world without, say, war.