One of the most amusing political defenses you’ll ever hear is the libertarian’s plea to “legalize it,” whatever “it” may be, temporarily tossing aside their distaste for regulation to wildly overpromise how much better things will be if only (insert here) were under the state’s bureaucratic purview. (Then again, there’s at least one issue where I happily and fervently make this argument.) The latest example of legalization falling short of promises is Germany’s experience with legal prostitution after two years. It’s a familiar argument both in the States and Europe: at least prostitutes will be protected from violent pimps and have health care access if their profession gets posted on the unemployment office board. Maybe in a world of perfect regulation – but regulation is anything but tidy in the real world.
While legal contracts can be established between workers and clients, “Across the country, no more than a dozen contracts have been signed.” The state withholds earnings for social benefits and to guarantee a 40-hour work week (you know France will cap it at 35 upon legalization), but “Prostitutes, who often have to share their income with brothel owners and other parties, are reluctant to pay taxes.” Plus…
“The contribution for social coverage is too expensive,” Felicitas Schirow, the head of a Berlin brothel, told the magazine Der Spiegel recently.
Health-insurance companies are reluctant to take on prostitutes as customers.
Let’s not even get into case of a woman who says she was told to join a brothel or lose unemployment benefits under Germany’s version of welfare reform, which has cast a bright spotlight on the law’s tradeoffs.
Supporters of the law predictably say the failures are because of loopholes in the law, such as local discretion over the nuts and bolts of prostitution codes (turn tricks at the train station in Hamburg vs. anywhere in Berlin). But loopholes are pretty much inherent in legislation anywhere – new ones keep popping up as old ones get closed (see “USA, campaign finance reform, enactment of”). They are really a boon to “both sides” of any issue, because they allow the opposition to deceptively support something by undermining it, and the supporters to have a ready excuse whenever their programs fall short. If prostitution is the oldest profession, the loophole is the oldest law.
Don’t expect Germany’s debate to necessarily sway the rest of Europe, either:
In the Netherlands – as in Germany – the law doesn’t apply to illegal workers. It is estimated that 6 out of 10 prostitutes are aliens who live and work illegally. …
Opponents say other Europeans need only look to Sweden to see the future of legalization. The country – which legalized prostitution 30 years ago – recriminalized it in 1998, after complaints that legalization had solved few of the problems it set out to address.
Does that mean there are easy or painless answers to how to address prostitution in the law? Of course not. But it’s hard to argue that prostitution is a normal choice, made rationally without duress. Is full-blown legalization vs. harsh penalties against prostitutes really the only legislative lens available to creative policy wonks around the world? Surely the nerds filling legislative backrooms and tiny think tank suites would jump at the chance to get some real-world experience on a subject they’re widely believed to know nothing about…
I’m a tech journalist who’s making a TV show about a college newspaper.