Pat Inniss Website Tax Dollars for Hookers

Tax Dollars for Hookers - Maybe not Such a Bad Idea!

A couple of years ago in Seattle the King County Council recently defeated one of the more unusual proposals to come before it. This bill would have provided funds to not only supply condoms to prostitutes, but to also pay prostitutes for using them. The thought of handing over taxpayer dollars to hookers for doing something illegal in a safer manner was apparently a little too progressive for a majority of the Council members, so the bill was defeated. But the measure's proponents did manage to make some worthwhile points, the most salient being that any realistic assesment would conclude that the prostitutes are going to do their thing one way or the other, so we might as well face that reality and make the inevitable encounters as safe as possible.

Unfortunately, this particular attempt to address the issue left a lot of room for improvement. Beyond the obvious practical problems of confirming actual condom usage (the news accounts were not surprisingly vague on this issue), it's probable that this program would have left the County open to charges of religious discrimination. Catholic streetwalkers, prohibited by their church from using contraceptives of any sort, would demand some sort of accomodation from the County so that they too could collect the payments. Despite these problems, the core of this proposal could have some value in other areas.

Making illegal activities at least a little safer may indeed be an idea whose time has come. The potential benefits to society are manifold. Take for instance the poorly trained gang bangers who are endlessly, it seems, gunning down innocent bystanders while their intended targets escape unscathed. This could be resolved by providing marksmanship training for the gangsters, as well as more accurate weapons and, if needed, corrective glasses. Then there are the drug dealers who, through a mixture of ignorance, greed and the unavailability of suitable facilities, sell their hapless patrons impure or overly potent drugs, with the result that said customers stop buying, and and all too often doing anything else, either. This is a needless waste when even rudimentary pharmacological training and lab instruments would make our recreational drugs nearly as safe as our recreational vehicles. Of course, criminals in less glamourous professions need protection, too. Pity the poor burglar who must work under the most undesirable conditions, climbing through windows and breaking glass, risking life and limb without the benefit of any formal training, specialized tools, or government assistance. Since certain federal agencies already have a trove of expertise at breaking and entering, couldn't some of these techniques be shared with private sector prowlers to produce safer, healthier burglars? What's government for, anyway?

On the other hand, maybe what we need to do is to dedicate adequate resources to the catastrophic problems that face our society. The proposal to compensate prostitutes for safe sex is an example of an effort to do something - anything - with the meager funds available. The transmission of the HIV virus is nothing we can afford to ignore, even if it is done illegally. Let's get serious with the problem, because the problem is getting serious with us.