Bear in mind when you write that the long list of economic transactions I believe should be legal. For instance, prostitution.axordil wrote:Sure am. The government has a vested interest in doing so, when the welfare of the public is at stake. As I pointed out earlier in the thread, the right of the government to do so in such cases has been settled law for more than 70 years.But you are intervening in a contract that both parties agreed to.
From my point of view, prostitution is a private contract, and there exists a third party meddling in that private contract in the form of a police officer arresting prostitutes and customers. I'm not including sex-slaves in this description, that's another and much worse thing going on lumped in with the prostitution issue.
Except in Nevada, a prostitute is an independent contractor, both employee and employer, and the unwritten contract entered into with the customer is that one provides money while the other provides sex. So here we have something that may be considered much worse than a contract that merely says "we will not cover contraception", we have a contract that says "you will provide sex." In Nevada, however, there is little in the way of third party interference, but you have a boss who says "in exchange for me hiring you, you will provide sex to clients."
I'm willing to leave that private contract alone, even though the government has much to say about it. Even though the terms of the contact are much more invasive than merely not supplying birth control. I'm willing to leave it alone because the parties enter into it voluntarily. And if I'm willing to leave that alone, I'm certainly not going to intervene on behalf of an added benefit that an employer chooses to not supply.
Meanwhile I heard a good analogy about this contraception issues. Suppose a law were passed requiring all supermarkets and restaurants to sell bacon. The Kosher establishments all say "excuse me, but bacon isn't kosher, we can't sell that."
"Are you saying bacon should be banned?" "No, that supermarket across the street is selling bacon, they can go there."
"Are you saying your employees shouldn't be allowed to eat bacon?" "No, they can eat bacon, but they can't buy it here."
"Aren't you forcing your religious views on others by not selling bacon?" "They can still get it elsewhere, how am I forcing my views on others?"
"You're trying to control what I eat!" "No, I'm only trying to control what I sell."