I noticed a front page headline in the Seattle P-I about Washington State Attourney General Rob McKenna’s participation in an agreement with Craigslist aimed at urbing at curbing the sex trade on the popular site. The authorities appear to be emphasizing the exploitation of minors and women from other countries as motivation for this action, but McKenna is hoping Craigslist’s new policies will deter “illegal activity,” including the business of uncoerced adult prostitutes. In my opinion, the government should not regulate sex between consentign adults. Hence my disappointment when I saw this headline. (Many of the comments to the P-I article reflected my feeling.)
I think there ought to be laws against sex with minors, due to their inability to consent. Although one has to admit that there is a degree of arbitrariness to the age of consent — why not 19 or 17 rather than 18? But I suppose the line has to be drawn somewhere. I hesitate to be fully candid in discussing this issue due to public nature of this blog.
Sex trafficking involving adult women (or men, I guess — can’t men be prostitutes, too?) should be illegal for different reasons. The most easily defended one I can think of is that such trafficking necessarily involves illegal immigration. Although I believe that we should have far, far more liberal immigration policies, a nation should have control of its borders. So traffickers are weakening the US’s control of its borders. Of course, for most commentators, illegal immigration is not the outstanding feature of sex trafficking. Instead, the focus is on the unfortunate situation of the women whom traffickers bring here. Either because the women do not want to be deported or do not have the skills to survive without their captors (language, culture, etc.), their captors have the leverage to force them to work as prostitutes. I don’t really know a whole lot about sex trafficking, so maybe I will hold off on coming to a conclusion, but I would just point out that an unfortunate situation is not necessarily one in which the government should intervene. For example, investors in mortgage-backed securities are in an unfortunate situation but should only be bailed out if their losses pose system risks to the economy (an externality).
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April 20, 2009 at 11:56 pm
Anonymous
Since you are interested in the topic of “silliness,” I would recommend that you learn at least a tiny bit about a subject before posting idiotic comments with regard to it.
SEXUAL TRAFFICKING DOES NOT NECESSARILY INVOLVE ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION – IT IS OUTRIGHT BRUTAL SLAVERY, AND IT IS PERPETRATED NOT ONLY ON IMMIGRANTS, BUT ON AMERICAN CHILDREN. SEVERAL HUNDRED THOUSAND ORDINARY AMERICAN CHILDREN ARE FORCED INTO EXTREMELY BRUTAL SEXUAL SLAVERY EVERY YEAR IN THE UNITED STATES. THE PIMPS WHO ENSLAVE THESE CHILDREN USE SITES SUCH AS CRAIGSLIST TO EASILY ADVERTISE THEIR SLAVES.
TO VERIFY THIS, YOU WOULD ONLY HAVE TO DO A TINY BIT OF RESEARCH, OR JUST WATCH THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA SUCH AS MSNBC.
I SUPPOSE THAT IF YOU WERE ALIVE IN THE 1809, INSTEAD OF 2009, YOU WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THAT SLAVERY WAS OK THEN, TOO.
I DON’T THINK ANTI-SLAVERY EFFORTS IN ANY CENTURY CAN BE CLASSIFIED AS SILLY, NOR CAN OPPOSITION TO SUCH EFFORTS.
OPPOSITION TO THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IS HEINOUS, NOT SILLY.
AND THE EFFORTS TO STOP ADVERTISING SLAVES ON CRAIGSLIST ARE HEROIC, NOT SILLY!
April 21, 2009 at 4:36 am
cdfox
Did you read what I wrote? “I think there ought to be laws against sex with minors.” The word “silly” refers to the outlawing of prostitution between consenting adults, which I think is outside of the proper role of government.