I’ve been following some of the debates on prostitution in the wake of Spitzer’s shaming. Most of the lefty commenters seem to be taking the libertarian position, i.e. that women acting as free agents aren’t really victimized by prostitution, and that prostitution should be legal. I wonder, though: If individual rights justify legalizing prostitution, why don’t they justify working for presently illegal wages, or ignoring laws that oblige members of certain professions to join unions, or that oblige businesses to do business with those unions? If we’re to be free agents, enjoying the autonomy of our individual rights, what business does the government have policing private business-owners’ attitudes toward race, sex, sexuality, disability, &c.?

Why is the Left libertarian on sex but authoritarian on practically everything else?

Did prevailing-wage rules apply to those prostitutes? Were there OSHA inspections? Did their employers withhold their Social Security taxes? Did they follow ADA guidelines? Were they equal-opportunity employers? Did they hang up all those ugly laminated signs from the Department of Mandatory Workplace Posters? Can we really say that anybody is exercising a “right” to do any kind of business when that business can only be done in accordance with narrow regulatory mandates? Why should you have a “right” to be a prostitute but not a “right” to work for $7 an hour at a video shop in Bovina, N.Y.?

UPDATE: A reader writes in to note that there is no video store in Bovina, N.Y. So make that “work for $7 an hour at the general store in Bovina, N.Y.”