In a novel approach to punishing men who attempt to hire prostitutes, Nashville and other cities are sending first-time offenders to a one-day class where they learn from former prostitutes, health experts, psychologists and law enforcement officers about “the risks of hiring a prostitute.”

This is a waste of time.

Prostitution is “the oldest profession” for a reason: sex is a biological imperative. A day of anti-sex school will have no effect on the demand for prostitution.

The better approach is to legalize.

Under legalization, the vast majority of men would patronize legal establishments. This would also allow quality control, since competition would encourage prostitution services to certify their employees as free from STDs and above the age of consent. Legalization would help the women who serve as prostitutes by reducing the violence they suffer from johns and pimps. In particular, legalization would mainly eliminate forced prostitution.

The claim that prostitution encourages sexual assault does not pass the sniff test. Many countries, plus Nevada and Rhode Island, allow legal prostitution to varying degrees, but no evidence suggests they have a higher incidence of violence toward women.

C/P Libertarianism, from A to Z

Anti-Sex School for Johns? is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

The Daily Mail reports that a Romanian student who sold her virginity to the highest bidder as part of an online auction may wind up keeping less than half of her earnings thanks to Germany’s oppressive tax system:

Tax authorities in Germany are poised to claim 50 per cent of the money that a teenage student earned for ‘auctioning’ her virginity… Romanian-born Alina Percea, who is a student in Germany, was paid £8,800 in cash for a weekend of sex with the Italian businessman after she auctioned her virginity online. But tax officials in Berlin regard the 18-year-old’s act as ‘nothing more than prostitution’. Prostitution is legal in Germany — but it is heavily taxed. …It also emerged that, because Alina earned so much in such a short time, she may even be liable for a hefty VAT bill too. VAT in Germany works out to 19 per cent, meaning the sale of her virginity could land her with just over £3,000 in the end.

Tax Bureaucrats Take the Fun out of Everything is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog