Prostitution

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ChanBalam wrote:

How to handle prostitution depends upon one's goals and how one prioritizes them.

Possible Goals:
Provide income source to those who want to sell their bodies and time
Provide men a way to buy sex
Keep criminals out of the business
Reduce disease and keep sex safe
Reduce abortions
Stop human trafficking
Reduce drug addiction and related crimes
Contain it
Tax its transactions
Track those who partake
Etc.

Until you know what success looks like, you cannot plan the best approach.

My answer to that, regardless of whether the issue is prostitution or not, is:

The ultimate goal of economics is to assign human time (aka life) to tasks in such a way that value is maximized -- without forgetting that assignment is a task itself and costs life.

The nature of government is to compel certain behavior, or avoidance of behavior, through threat of force. The ultimate goal of government is to create a system of coercion that brings about the ultimate goal of economics -- without forgetting that deciding which behavior to coerce, how to coerce it, and implementation of that plan are tasks themselves and cost life.

So assuming GDP is a fairly accurate measure of aggregate value, I'd say whatever policies result in the highest GDP long-term are best. Many of those things you listed (ex: human trafficking) could impact this in less than straightforward ways.

prostitution is fun , i scavange for some fetishes of my own (black women with big booties and blondes with hazel eyes slim figure big tits) , been to plenty hookers and escorts only regret a handful of them but most of it was very pleasent.

if i had a LOT of money id hire one every week.

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ScrotieMcB wrote:

"

ChanBalam wrote:

How to handle prostitution depends upon one's goals and how one prioritizes them.

Possible Goals:
Provide income source to those who want to sell their bodies and time
Provide men a way to buy sex
Keep criminals out of the business
Reduce disease and keep sex safe
Reduce abortions
Stop human trafficking
Reduce drug addiction and related crimes
Contain it
Tax its transactions
Track those who partake
Etc.

Until you know what success looks like, you cannot plan the best approach.

My answer to that, regardless of whether the issue is prostitution or not, is:

The ultimate goal of economics is to assign human time (aka life) to tasks in such a way that value is maximized -- without forgetting that assignment is a task itself and costs life.

The nature of government is to compel certain behavior, or avoidance of behavior, through threat of force. The ultimate goal of government is to create a system of coercion that brings about the ultimate goal of economics -- without forgetting that deciding which behavior to coerce, how to coerce it, and implementation of that plan are tasks themselves and cost life.

So assuming GDP is a fairly accurate measure of aggregate value, I'd say whatever policies result in the highest GDP long-term are best. Many of those things you listed (ex: human trafficking) could impact this in less than straightforward ways.

If the goal is just the best GDP then its all about pushing up the number and value of transactions without regard to any impact on the people involved. Pretty cold. I'm pretty sure that measured GDP excludes any illegal or underground transactions. So making all of that activity public would raise GDP numbers, but wouldn't actually grow the economy in a meaningful way. It would only reveal spending that was already happening and not being previously counted.

Growing an economy generally comes from two sources: greater efficiency/productivity or introducing new money into the economy from outside (selling exported goods and services). Recirculating existing activity in a new way does little to nothing. For example, adding a new restaurant to a community may add more choices, but does little to grow the community economy. Now if the Chinese come to Denver and build a new restaurant using Chinese money, then that does grow the community GDP because new monetary resources are added to Denver. Growing GDP is not always simple.

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ChanBalam wrote:

I'm pretty sure that measured GDP excludes any illegal or underground transactions. So making all of that activity public would raise GDP numbers, but wouldn't actually grow the economy in a meaningful way. It would only reveal spending that was already happening and not being previously counted.

I consider this a flaw in the metric. Ideally, GDP would include products of illegal activity, but obviously accurate measurement is a serious concern due to lack of reporting.

However, if legalization would allow the prostitution industry to grow in a manner that doesn't negatively impact other production too much (which it could, competing with other entertainment products), then might still be good.

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ScrotieMcB wrote:

"

ChanBalam wrote:

I'm pretty sure that measured GDP excludes any illegal or underground transactions. So making all of that activity public would raise GDP numbers, but wouldn't actually grow the economy in a meaningful way. It would only reveal spending that was already happening and not being previously counted.

I consider this a flaw in the metric. Ideally, GDP would include products of illegal activity, but obviously accurate measurement is a serious concern due to lack of reporting.

However, if legalization would allow the prostitution industry to grow in a manner that doesn't negatively impact other production too much (which it could, competing with other entertainment products), then might still be good.

If legalizing prostitution only makes it public and allows taxation, grater safety and reduction in crime, those are all good things, but they are not economic growth. Now, if that legalization brought in new customers and their money from outside the municipality, the GDP of that municipality would grow and have an overall benefit to the area.

If for example that city was Denver and legal sex brought in customers and their money to Denver from the suburbs and rural areas of Colorado, then Denver would get richer. Colorado would not. The US would not. If the sex experience in Denver was extraordinary, and attracted rich old Chinese men from Shanghai, then Denver, Colorado, and the US would grow their GDP and benefit.

Legal prostitution can have many benefits, but growing GDP is not a likely one. It all depends upon one's goals.

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ChanBalam wrote:

If legalizing prostitution only makes it public and allows taxation, grater safety and reduction in crime, those are all good things, but they are not economic growth.

Yes, but they can cause economic growth.

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ScrotieMcB wrote:

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ChanBalam wrote:

If legalizing prostitution only makes it public and allows taxation, grater safety and reduction in crime, those are all good things, but they are not economic growth.

Yes, but they can cause economic growth.

They will only cause economic growth if they bring in dollars from outside of the area that is being measured for GDP. And new tax revenue would not be counted as economic growth.

The real question about prostitution is, what would be your price for doing it? Everyone has a price.

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diablofdb wrote:

The real question about prostitution is, what would be your price for doing it? Everyone has a price.

Same answer asthe Joker....

Half.

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ScrotieMcB wrote:

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diablofdb wrote:

The real question about prostitution is, what would be your price for doing it? Everyone has a price.

Same answer asthe Joker....

Half.

I thought you would quote him as:

if you're good at something never do it for free.