Fixing The Wrong Problem!

In the light of the Eliot Spitzer scandal in New York, I suppose it was inevitable that some version of this story would come out at some point.  It's a perfect example of fixing the wrong problem.  Check it out:

Eliot Spitzer paid a woman for sex. And got caught. Depending on whose statistics you choose to believe, more than one in every 10 American adult males have paid for sex at some point in their lives. What's more, in 2005, about 84,000 people were arrested across the nation for prostitution-related offenses.

In other words, it's not terribly uncommon.

Let me interject here with a couple thoughts.  First, if my calculator is correct, 84,000 people divided out into 300 million (the population of the U.S.) means that roughly .028% of Americans were arrested for prostitution-related offenses in 2005.  Even if we triple that number to allow for the ones that got away, it would still only come to .084%.  That sure seems pretty uncommon to me...

Second, I would like to see those 1-in-10-males statistics - the fact that the L.A. Times even admits there are such discrepancies just about guarantees they've cherry picked the numbers that most closely support their objective with this story, so you really have to take it with a monster-sized grain of salt.  Speaking of which, what is their objective?  Reading on, you'll find this:

Perhaps Spitzer's resignation will help convince Americans that it is finally time to decriminalize prostitution across the country.

Um...okay...

First of all, I'm not quite sure how his resignation should logically lead us to conclude that prostitution should be legal.  Second, let's look at what they're saying here: Spitzer makes a reputation for himself by going after high-profile businessmen involved in sex scandals and justifies his actions by saying it ruins families and American culture.  Then, he becomes part of a sex scandal himself that is ruining his own family.  What is the (liberal) L.A. Times' suggestion for solving the problem?  Naturally, we should make the sex scandals legal.

Am I alone in thinking they're missing the entire point here?

The article goes on to exemplify the wonders of prostitution in Mexico -- it's legal in many areas -- including cheerful descriptions of the diseases, pimps, and 'occasional' incidents of violence that just seem to be part of the industry.

Gee whiz willikers, what are we waiting for?

On a related note, David Mamet writes a nifty column titled, "Why I Am No Longer a 'Brain-Dead Liberal'".  It appears he's seen the light.

There's my two cents.