The unspoken issue at the center of prostitution is causation

[The Magistrate]

162. You Swing, And Miss, Sir, Again

What is under discussion is the question of whether a person who says they have chosen voluntarily should be believed, and if not, why not. The standard for saying people are acting under coercion set up at the start of this discussion is one that would hold virtually every human action in economic and social life must be regarded as coerced, if it were applied outside the field in which its proponent said it must be applied. This person has been unable, and his supporters here have also been unable, to provide any reason the criteria he set apply only to one specific field. The view that all human action in economic and social life is more or less coerced is one that can be argued soundly for, and indeed one that has a good deal to recommend it, though it makes many people uncomfortable, particularly in the modern West. What cannot be sustained reasonably, or argued soundly, is that virtually every human choice in a particular direction in a particular field of economic and social life is more or less coerced, but that in every other field of economic and social life, coercion is seldom if ever a factor when humans make choices.

And then there is the side-line you set up by calling me a Randite, claiming that my comments present, and are rooted in, a view that selfishness is the highest moral good. That was deliberate insult, which on the courteous assumption you are of at least average perspicacity, you certainly ought to have known was false when you made. The only moral view which could be honestly ascribed to my comments is a respect for others as agents in their own lives, even when they make choices in difficult circumstances, and even when they make choices I might not approve of. If you do not view people as autonomous, it is far too easy to come to view them as automatons, subject to a good deal of tinkering....