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Consensus building. I for one do not see them that way. I do not think there is anything bad about prostitution per se. About half the adult humans have a much stronger sex drive than the other half, and unfortunately are mostly interested in sex with that less interested half. A lot of ink has been spilled about the decline of romantic relationships, but for our purposes it is enough to assert that humanity was shaped by the uncaring forces of evolution and now finds itself in an environment way out of the training distribution.
Sure, sex with a sex worker will never be maximally wholesome, it would always be more wholesome to find some partner who is just enthusiastic about sex with you. But this is the perfect (but probably unachievable) being the enemy of the good.
The same argument has been made about semaglutide, actually. "But would it not be much more wholesome if you changed your diet on your own and exercised?" Fuck that.
I see prostitution more on a moral level with theme parks, not meth labs. There are probably some hardcore cosplayers who view Disney parades -- where people simply walk around in some Mickey Mouse costume because that is their day job -- rather because they feel deeply drawn to become that character -- as an abomination. And others might say that theme parks are fine, but roller coasters are the devil's work, and humans should just be happy to experience 9.81m/s^2 towards a fixed direction as God intended, or might claim that most actually existing theme parks are ecological disasters and lead to animal suffering. Or decry the commercialism of all of it. But in the end, theme parks are not inherently evil. They simply offer the fulfillment of normal human drives (e.g. for excitement and adventure) for money. If capitalism can be trusted to deliver your daily bread, why should you not also trust it to deliver a fun day for your family?
Whenever we say "this thing is sacred, it shall not be traded for profane goods" (e.g. for sex, but also for the saving of a human life, or a kidney), that tends to create outcomes which are just further from the Pareto frontier.
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