You have to love the Germans. They seem to take sex to a whole new level. Whether it be in this off-color and apparently unauthorized NSFW ad for Sprite or in other unusual marketing schemes, the Germans seem to leave us prude Americans in the dust when it comes to bringing sex out into the open. Now, one brothel has made sex a little bit greener as well.

In Berlin, the "Masison d'envie" Brothel has a new marketing idea: if you come to their brothel by bicycle or on public transportation, you get a 5 Euro (or $7) discount. No questions asked.

The owner reports that business has increased by 3-5 customers per day since the discount went into effect and that traffic in the area has decreased as well. I am thinking that the traffic decrease has to be a bit of an exaggeration, unless it is of course, an unusually quiet street.

The usual price, in case you are wondering, is 70 Euros for 45 minutes. Since prostitution is illegal in my state and I have never used those particular services, I have no idea how the prices even compare. I not only think that this brothel had a great idea, but that Germany had a great idea in legalizing prostitution as well.

While I am not about ready to jump on the legalize-everything bandwagon,  if you regard  prostitution from a health and wellness standpoint, the legalization of prostitution really makes sense. Instead of penalizing people trying to earn a living the hard way, we could tax it, regulate it for health standards, and enforce it with an age limit. The tax revenue earned could be used for sexual health programs within the community.

I also think that the legalization of prostitution would help deter human trafficking. To a great extent, human trafficking involves women and girls being brought into foreign countries as sex slaves, including the United States. If we had a legal sex trade industry going on here, I think that would alleviate the need to illegally bring in people to the country and force then to work as sex slaves.

In a recent post in Seattle Times, two voices counter each other with opposing viewpoints on the oldest profession. Every so often, the city of Seattle has infamous "prostitution raids" in which the intrepid officers have to come up with "clever ruses" to avoid the happy endings. Talk about hard work. Often, when one shop closes up, the others open up and more and more tax payers dollars are spent.