I saw this on Bradspangler.com. NY Governor Eliot Spizter was caught with a prostitute and probably is going to resign. (This story has been cited in many locations, but I first read it there.)
In the news coverage of this scandal, the key issue is never mentioned. Is prostitution really a crime?
In a stateless society, prostitution is not a crime. If two people voluntarily agree to do something in private, with informed consent, then it is not a crime.
This appears to be one of the BIGGEST rules of politics. Whenever a politician is caught doing something that is falsely classified as a crime, they *MUST* be punished. The three biggest false crimes are prostitution, drug use, and tax evasion. A corrupt government has improperly declared these activities to be a crime.
In a truly free market, prostitution, drug use, and tax evasion are not crimes. By banning prostitution and drug use, all the red market accomplishes is that it raises prices and incomes for people who successfully evade the State.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Is Prostitution a Crime?
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2 comments:
As far as I'm concerned, prostitution should of course not be a crime, its a consenting act between two adults.
Here in the UK, prostitution itself is not a crime, but some associated acts, such as curb crawling and running a brothel are.
In Spitzer's case he was guilty of breaking a law which makes it illegal to transport someone across state lines for prostitution (which should not be a crime if they are consenting - which they were in this case).
The real kicker though is that he's aggressively prosecuted people for that crime, so there is a certain poetic justice.
As libertarian justice does not exist yet, we sometimes have to settle for poetic justice (as I just read elsewhere)
The other thing that gets me is that in the newspapers they point out that he was caught because the banks notified the IRS / Feds that he was transferring money over $5,000. But what they don't say is that these anti drug money laundering laws are not truly about drugs, but about the IRS and taxation, and surveillance on the citizenry.
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