iam: you raise a lot of good points and cover a lot of ground. I meant to reply the other day, but it took me a while to think about your points...

One thing I would add is that the term 'prositution' has a very negative connotation, but in effect most kinds of market exchanges are forms of prostitution. In a free market everyone is selling themselves for money (if they are not selling money).

That some would choose sex, and other would choose writing software for example, I don't see a whole lot of difference.

One thing that complicates the issue though is the current legal and social attitudes towards sex workers. Since sexual prostitution is illegal, the working conditions and pay are really bad. I think the laws prohibiting prostitution actually make life for the prostitute worse, since there's no standard pay, regulations, or union.

So what I mean is, I think our current system is the worst possible one for sex workers. Either a free market or a controlled economy would be better. I do think that in a free market though, there is more potential for abuse.

Edit: It's interesting though the differences in U.S. attitudes over the same thing. What's the difference between a gold digger (legal prostitution) and a sex worker?