Mayor Of Las Vegas Wants To Create Red Light District In Sin City

And he wants to create it “for the children.” Which, of course, means he wants to tax the hookers.

[Mayor Oscar] Goodman said, I've met with folks from that industry who make a very compelling argument that it could generate 200 million a year in tax dollars, and that would buy a lot of textbooks, pay for a lot of teachers.

So how do the hookers feel about this? They’re not exactly happy about the idea:

“Since many customers are critically concerned with discretion and prostitutes prefer their ‘freedom,’ I believe the idea may appear much more appealing than the reality of the situation and what is necessary to make it happen.”

In any other industry, the brothel system itself would seem obviously a bad deal for the workers. The brothels charge room and board to the workers for lodging as well as take up to half the money earned by them from customers, technically often including tips. So, you could in theory work a week and lose money after you pay your rent to the brothel. Women have no privacy rights even in their rented rooms which can be searched by the brothel owners for hidden cash or drugs at any time. The sacrifice of “freedom” is real.

Others strongly object to the money. One local high-end illegal escort I reached who opposes legal brothels in Vegas told me: “I would never give a brothel owner half of what I earn, that is a legal word for pimp.”

If you ask me, Mayor Goodman’s scheme here may be more exploitive of the hookers than pimps are. Herding them into one area? Heavily regulating their industry, forcing them to do business in only one manner (the brothel system), and applying what I’m sure will be heavy taxes?

I don’t blame the hookers for being upset.

I actually believe that prostitution should probably be legal. We’re not getting anywhere by having it be illegal. It’s “the world’s oldest profession,” and people will be doing it whether it’s illegal or not. And while I’d be devastated if it were a trade one of my daughters ever took up, from a policy standpoint I have a hard time with laws that ban financial transactions between two consenting adults surrounding a perfectly legal activity. Again, they’re going to do it anyway. And our law enforcement resources could probably be better spent elsewhere.

In fact, while prostitution will probably always be a seedy industry, we’d undoubtedly see less exploitation and abuse were it brought out from the dark margins of society.

Again, I don’t like the concept of prostitution, but it’s not a perfect world. We’re never going to see an end to prostitution. So maybe it’s time for a pragmatic embrace of reality?

http://www.kxmc.com/News/Nation/324102.asp