« Mindles Dreck is the Dreck of my dreams | Main | Markets in everything, literary world edition »
Sentences to ponder
“It’s important to pay taxes if you want to live a normal life,” said ‘Lisa’, a prostitute who spoke with the newspaper.
That's from Sweden (no mention of patriotism), and apparently some social benefits are attracting more prostitutes to the taxed sector. The record of income creates or enhances rights to sick-leave pay, parental leave benefits, and a pension. Note that in Sweden it is illegal to buy sex but not to sell it.
Thanks to a loyal MR reader for the link.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on September 20, 2008 at 07:08 AM in Current Affairs | Permalink
Comments
Also, my understanding is that it is illegal to employ or manage a prostitute. So there are no legal pimps or brothels.
Posted by: Daniel Klein at Sep 20, 2008 9:25:24 AM
"Note that in Sweden it is illegal to buy sex but not to sell it."
Sort of like financial stocks here in the US, but in reverse.
Posted by: Kyle S at Sep 20, 2008 9:39:59 AM
Anecdotally, a friend of mine in Florida became a big fan of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) a few years ago after she had a child.
She had worked for an escort service prior to motherhood, and never reported the income since it was all cash. Afterwards, she went on welfare but kept a couple of loyal "fans" who enjoyed her services. When she discovered the EITC, she suddenly began keeping track of the cash she earned, writing it down in a little book. I think she mostly called it "pet sitting" and "lawn mowing".
Posted by: Bob Knaus at Sep 20, 2008 9:41:54 AM
So Lisa, who lives off of value created through voluntary exchange, finds a normal life though accepting involuntary exchange (i.e., being screwed by government). In Sweden, they seem to enjoy it.
Posted by: chris at Sep 20, 2008 11:09:07 AM
Maybe it should be illegal to buy drugs but not to sell them. Of course, an exception would have to be made for politicians, because they need to be on drugs in order to dream up asymmetric legislation like this.
Posted by: at Sep 20, 2008 12:12:52 PM
Crazy as the asymmetry may seem, I think there's a case for it (assuming you want to prohibit, or at least discourage trading sex for money). It avoids many of the most harmful effects of symmetric prohibition, since prostitutes who are abused by their customers can go to the police without fear of arrest.
Posted by: Jacob Wintersmith at Sep 20, 2008 12:19:39 PM
But not customers abused by prostitutes, right?
Posted by: otto at Sep 20, 2008 12:56:08 PM
Otto, that is a premium service and costs extra!
Posted by: Jing at Sep 20, 2008 1:22:13 PM
“It’s important to pay taxes if you want to live a normal life”
What if you most emphatically DON'T want to live what Swedes consider a normal life?
Posted by: Snorri Godhi at Sep 20, 2008 4:28:29 PM
Crazy as the asymmetry may seem, I think there's a case for it (assuming you want to prohibit, or at least discourage trading sex for money). It avoids many of the most harmful effects of symmetric prohibition, since prostitutes who are abused by their customers can go to the police without fear of arrest.
Only in theory... In real life, the people who run a brothel or escort service are going to want to protect their customers, and so are going to use extra-legal means to keep their prostitutes from going to the police.
The most important thing about the policy is that it allows self-styled "feminists" to be "compassionate" and "progressive" while still keeping essentially the same intolerant anti-sex ideology society has always had.
But not customers abused by prostitutes, right?
In their ideology, the customer of a prostitute is a "sexual predator", as a woman isn't fully able to consent to heterosexual sex because of the male/female disparity of power in society. All sex acts between a male and female are rape in their ideology, but actually enforcing their ideology is only politically viable in cases like prostitution where the right-wing moralists will go along with their suggestions for their own religious/political reasons. Protecting the customer is like protecting a rapist. Why do you want to protect rapists?
Posted by: Rex Rhino at Sep 21, 2008 5:10:04 PM
