This is especially notable when you look at the buyout clause in the young ladies’ contracts. A millionaire could literally pay for her to work for him permanently and thereby sever all ties with the EC.

Interesting. She’s more like Inara from Firefly than a street whore.

Tom

Somehow, I read that as you thinking that I had become nervous about us agreeing.

Now that I understand, I think I’ll point it out every time we agree, even though it causes you to question yourself. =)

*limps off the field in disgrace*

I don’t understand. Did I imply somewhere that it makes me nervous if I agree with you? If I did, I didn’t mean too.

I think you’re a smart guy Brian, and I think you made a good point, that’s all.

Why does it make me nervous that you agree with me?

Good point. Especially the “some liberties are more important than others” part.

I think that where I come out on this issue closely mirrors my feeling of strip clubs–it should be a local decision. So if Champaign wants to outlaw prostitution, and Danville chooses to allow it(too pick an example) then that should be allowed.

Augur,
I enjoyed the link. I think what is so poignant about Spitzer is that he had carefully crafted this “law and order” image and would call these press conferences and denounce the people he was prosecuting. So I think he got what was coming to him.

Allan

My point is that the decisions that individuals make almost always affect other people one way or another. Because of that reality, we have given the government a monopoly over the use of force, and created certain procedures by which the government tries to figure out ways in which we can all basically get along happily with one another. The importance of doing that as a means of preserving social order might in many cases be greater than the importance of preserving some particular liberty interest.

That’s why I think that me paying somebody else to have sex with me should be against the law, whereas me paying two other people to have sex with each other on camera and then selling that film for a profit should NOT be against the law. The liberty interest at stake in the latter case (freedom of expression) is way more important than the liberty interest at stake in the former case.

The point is that there are many different kinds of liberty interests that are compelling to varying degrees. The liberty interests at stake when dealing with the freedom to express oneself, or the freedom to worship according to one’s beliefs, are really compelling, so much so that we have written a constitution erecting enormous, almost insurmountable barriers to their infringement. The liberty interest at stake in soliciting prostitutes is nowhere near that level, and because that liberty interest is at such a low ebb, it confuses me when people say “we should err on the side of liberty.” Liberty isn’t a singular concept, and it matters more in some circumstances than others. When it doesn’t matter that much, I see no reason to err on the side of it.

But my larger point is this: There is no common set of values shared by all people at the relevant political level–the state. Therefore, the idea that there is some set of “social values” that decides the issue of prostitution is fundamentally flawed. Maybe I’m being nit-picky, perhaps “social values” just means “anything that at least 51% of citizens agree upon.” But I don’t think that’s what Brian originally meant. I think that implicit in Brian’s comment is the sense that not only is there a set of values that everyone shares, but that there is a set of values that everyone should share. That is, I think that implicit in idea of “social values” is the idea that, in theory, everyone could sit down together and hammer out a common set of values which almost everyone would agree upon, and which everyone would agree should be the basis of political decision-making. I reject the idea that such a set of values exists, except for truly uncontroversial decisions.

The reason I’m hammering on this seemingly minor point is that I think the idea that there exist “social values” upon which decisions can be made legitimizes decision-making at a level of government where making such a decision may be inappropriate. Why is it that the state of Illinois should decide that prostitution should be illegal as opposed to the Champaign county “community”?