When good intention turns bad

(This morning I read an article on Spiegel (a German magazine which is my favorite) about how legalizing prostitution has failed in Germany, and I have to say it did offer me a different perspective on this sensitive topic)

Recently, there has been suggestion about making prostitution become legal in Vietnam. As a typical eastern people, we find it quite uncomfortable to talk about such idea. We all know the negative side of prostitution through our school books. We all know where to find it through our friends. But we do not want to talk about it all. However, currently, this topic has gained much attention from the public.

Most people when argue about legalizing prostitution often base on 2 points:

1/ The benefits if we manage it.

2/ The morality of doing prostitution: for both buyers and sellers.

The first point is the reason why people want to legalize prostitution. There are some benefits according to them. They believe that by organizing this smoke-free industry, we can help reduce the STD, especially HIV/AIDS. We can even tax those sellers and increase government budget. They argue that we can never ever make that profession totally vanish. Therefore we should instead manage it and benefit from it.

The second point is why people turn down the idea. They blame the man who buys the service. And they even blame the woman who sells that. Eastern culture hardly accepts that very natural biological demand.

However, there is something missing here. People have forgotten to mention the prostitute’s benefits if we legalize their jobs.

After all, we are all only talking about ourselves, about “we”, “we”, “we”. We take HIV/AIDS into account because we are afraid that we may get infected somehow. We consider management because we cannot stop it at the first place. We want tax so that we have more to spend. We talk about moral because we do not want our husbands to be spoiled. But we forget to talk about the main person here: the prostitute.

What will happen to the prostitute if we legalize her profession?

When a girl accepts her job at a brothel, she has to work intensively, sometimes more than the pre-legalization period. How can this happen?

It is because when we legalize prostitution, we will create a free market for it. Free market means more competitors, new standard and tax. Now that the brothel owners have to improve the facilities to meet the law standard, pay tax, compete with each other, they will have to increase the commission received from their employees. The prostitute therefore needs to work harder if they want to maintain the same wage.

Human trafficking will be a big concern as brothel owners will be searching widely to have more employees. Because now they stand on a more firm and legal ground, they can easily employ more women than before to meet the increasing demand. More women will take a risk of working as prostitute and their futures are uncertain for the career only lasts 20 years at most.

Moreover, there will be no easy way to quit as the brothel owners always know how to get things on track. Even when prostitution becomes legal, police are still not a reliable support. People know that there is a blur connection between the police and those brothel owners. Before the legalization, if a prostitute breaks out because of being abused, she will receive much help and sympathy from the community. But if prostitution becomes a legal job such as banking or teaching, I do not think she will receive the same amount of that because now everyone is equal and she is no longer miserable for we are all similar at our own jobs.

In the end, the prostitute does not benefit more if her profession is legalized. They will perhaps be safer. But there are also new problems they have to face. The law will not fully protect them.

When we study economics, we learn about benefit and cost. Any project whose benefit is bigger than its cost should be carried out. But we do not pay attention to who will benefit and to who will pay the cost. We cannot know exactly whether the benefit of legalizing prostitution is bigger than its cost or not. But there is one thing we have done: we have talked about the society so much that we almost forget those women.

The society may have a win. But this win will stink if the main character does not.

  

Kz