Mainstream occupation

To the editor:

Remember the goings on at your bachelor or bachelorette party the night before your wedding?  

Regarding efforts to decriminalize the practice (The Chief, March 10), prostitution came out of the closet long ago and is now part of mainstream America. Both the police and moral majority social police attempt at stopping this has  failed. There are hundreds of "massage parlors" with locations in every neighborhood around the five boroughs.   

What consenting adults consume, inhale, perform, read or view in the privacy of their home, another person’s home, hotel, private social club or massage parlor isn't the concern of government. Individual economic and civil liberties prosper best when the government stays out of both the bedroom and marketplace.

The free market always provides whatever products citizens’ desire regardless of government approval. Consumers have voted with their dollars, making prostitution as part of adult entertainment a multibillion-dollar enterprise. 

The world’s oldest profession delivers services on time and within budget. What you see is what you get.

Contrast that with elected officials who represent the second oldest profession. They seldom keep their promises, can't deliver within budget and are never on time with their services. Take prostitution out of the shadows and into the light of day. Imagine the revenue created with a sales tax per transaction? Both the provider and customer could conduct consensual activities in a safer environment.

Tax dollars would be better used if police and judges spent more time prosecuting those who commit real crimes against individuals or property than going after those who engage in prostitution. Citizens have more to fear from murder, arson, muggings, robberies, car and identify theft or home-break-ins along with increasing levels of confiscatory taxation and debt by government.

Law enforcement authorities should be free to pursue those who commit real crimes against citizens and property.

Larry Penner