Prostitution: The Truth Revealed

What gives the government of "the land of the free" the right to tell a human they can or cannot do something for an occupation? For this reason, I believe prostitution and being a prostitute should be legal. Prostitution has always been a part of society. Prostitution has been around since at least 2400 B.C., when it appeared on an ancient Sumerian list of professions along with doctor, scribe, barber, and cook. Seventy percent of adult men have admittedly engaged in prostitution at least once in their life. Along with that, an estimated 1% of Americans have worked as a prostitute, that’s over one million people. Many become prostitutes because of sexual desire, drug dependency, or a lack of an education, but the main reason why people become prostitutes is money. Prostitution is a 14.6 billion dollar a year business. Cities spend on average of 7.5 million dollars a year for removing prostitution from communities and towns. This is money that could be used to benefit the community, like building or renovating parks, adding afterschool programs to schools, or helping homeless shelters. I am proposing steps to make prostitution legal. These steps include: prostitutes must be required to check in biweekly with a government office to be checked for STI’s. This would reduce the amount of STI’s that are spread, and result in a cleaner society. The creation of a new government office would create new jobs for Americans by issuing a license to a prostitute that met set guidelines. For the license, the prostitute would give their name, address, and telephone number, just like a normal job. If it is over a month since their last check, they will lose their permit. They may also be checked by police at anytime, if they are prostituting and are caught without their license, the punishment would vary from person to person depending on the severity and if they have showed up to all of their check-ups. Taxing the amount of money a prostitute makes is also another benefit to society. The prostitute would be forced to tell the amount of money made and be paid in checks so the money could be verified and the taxes would be correct. With prostitution legalization, crime would also decrease because now the law could help prostitutes that are raped or beaten. The American government could handle prostitution in many ways, but right now, it is just a law against people just trying to get by.