Oh, the Netherlands, how I hate ye.

Your language sounds like a girl speaking English with her mouth occupied by a certain male sexual organ

Sounds sexy.  Actually, when I went there (a BUNCH of times) I never once looked at the girls in the windows and said, "I think I'll have one of her and two of those."  It's about as sexy as buying a piece of meat at Trader Joe's.  While I'll walk around TJ's with a hard-on like a racehorse as often as the next guy, I never partook in the meat market portion of the redlight district.  Not b/c of morality issues, just b/c it wasn't sexy.  And about half the time I was with girls, so why pay for milk.

But yeah, forced/underaged prostitution is awful too. DNRTFA, but I thought that place was pretty tightly regulated.

I'm pretty sure they (hipsters) think that because that's how Holland wants to be viewed by tourists. When foreigners think of New York, they think of Times Square, all the museums/plays, the Statue of Liberty; not the thousands of homeless, millions of rats, murders, traffic jams, etc. that are there every day.

human trafficking happens EVERYWHERE, not just in places with legalized prostitution.

Teenage runaway hookers, you say?

Let me check with Expedia...

I'm pretty sure you can find sex slaves in America. Underage hookers as well. Not to mention the gun violence. Europe's not much better. And I don't care HOW nice Germany gets, you don't get a free pass for fueling the two largest wars in history in a mere century just because your economy looks good now.

Glass houses, etc.

Vodka Zombie: Tell Me How My Blog Tastes: But yeah, forced/underaged prostitution is awful too. DNRTFA, but I thought that place was pretty tightly regulated.

It is.  I think people are taking a lot of the really bad things about Copenhagen, Denmark, and trying to apply it to Amsterdam in an attempt to disparage an entire country.

I was, however, surprised at the open air drug market atmosphere that seemed to exist.  They were pretty lax about that, and the element that participated in it.  It seems like when they legalized weed and prostitution the cops pretty much stopped doing anything at all.  Or at least stopped enforcing laws that were still in effect.  Seems like that would fix a lot of what TFA is complaining about.

Oooooh boy.

American living in Amsterdam here (for 1.5 years now) and let me tell you, the city does not resemble what the article paints it like at all.  Only time I ever see prostitutes is if a friend is visiting and just HAS to see the Red Light District/ a Fark party.  Nor have I as a woman been accosted going home as the article says, or anything like that.

I further find it telling that this article doesn't say how much more prevalent human trafficking is in the Netherlands than in other countries.  I would be curious to hear if it's much higher as of the last 10 years or so.

At least all those windmills will keep them cool.

So... other countries have problems?  It's not just us?  Good to know.

Tell Me How My Blog Tastes: And about half the time I was with girls, so why pay for milk.

You were getting the cow for free?

On of my ancestors left there before 1600. He settled inland of Sherwood Forest so I'm guessing he was running from someone with a navy.  He regained his title as English Lord and two generations later his grandson was Cromwell's right hand man with the whole choppy/choppy with Charles. I would love to know more.

Goddamned Dutch.

Hmm, I've already got my vacation time booked for this year.  Going to have to shift some stuff around...

Looks like Bill O'Reilly was right.

Vodka Zombie: Tell Me How My Blog Tastes: But yeah, forced/underaged prostitution is awful too. DNRTFA, but I thought that place was pretty tightly regulated.

It is.  I think people are taking a lot of the really bad things about Copenhagen, Denmark, and trying to apply it to Amsterdam in an attempt to disparage an entire country.

Perhaps.  The article is pretty light on facts.

The thing of it is, Vegas was able to legalize the sex trade without all these problems.  As far as I know.

I'm calling for a moratorium on the word 'hipster', no one uses that  damn thing correctly

When I think of Holland, I think of underage sex prostitutes, and I'm not even Dutch!

Snarcoleptic_Hoosier: At least all those windmills will keep them cool.

That really made me laugh way too much. But really, man, they aren't African Turtles, they are people.

So they've been hiding the good stuff from us.

/fark your paywall

Andromeda: American living in Amsterdam here (for 1.5 years now) and let me tell you, the city does not resemble what the article paints it like at all. Only time I ever see prostitutes is if a friend is visiting and just HAS to see the Red Light District/ a Fark party. Nor have I as a woman been accosted going home as the article says, or anything like that.

I'm not surprised that TFA might be a little disingenuous. But to be honest, I never think about Holland at all anyways. Until this headline, I can't remember the last time I thought about Holland.

gilgigamesh: The thing of it is, Vegas was able to legalize the sex trade without all these problems. As far as I know.

Prostitition is not legal in Las Vegas. Nevada laws on the matter differ from county to county; the ones which contain Vegas, Reno, and the majority of the population in the state do not allow it.

If fly to Vegas for the weekend and want to find a legal whore, you're going to need to rent a car, get directions, and drive for at least a half hour. If you want to do the same in Amsterdam, all you probably have to do is get on the subway.