Steps 1 & 2 have been done and re-done over and over again.

And, the ultra-rational people of such 1st world nations as Switzerland, Germany, New Zealand, and the Netherlands have determined that society is better off with legal, safe prostitution. And these are not liberal people by and large, mind you.

This is borne out by simply comparing the negative effects of prostitution between the US and these nations. I'll give you a clue: the Swiss have less rape, less STDs, and nearly no violence against prostitutes.

Simple fact. Legalizing an activity always A> diminishes criminality and violence associated with it B> increases the safety of the activity C> re-integrates the sub-cultures and alienated individuals who practice said activity into society and D> rarely increases the practice of said activity, and often decreases it (as in the soft drug use in the Netherlands.)

For people to act as if we don't know what would happen, or that our civilization would go to the dogs... tell me honestly which American cities are safer and nicer than Zürich, Geneva, Berlin, The Hague etc. etc. (all of which have legal prostitution, and varying degrees of drug tolerance) You think Amsterdam is a cesspool? It is a beautiful, cultured city with far less social problems than any US city (even those in Utah)... and this is despite the fact that the majority of people there are tourists on drug & sex tourism binges. Basically all the cities in the Kingdom of the Netherlands have legal drugs and prostitution. Have coffeshops and brothels ruined Utrecht, Arnhem, Leeuwarden, Harlem (the original one) or any of the other cities with huge numbers of brothels and coffeeshops per capita? Obviously not. These cities make Connecticut look like a cesspool.

Wanna see what happens when the government lets people have their relatively victimless vices? Buy a Eurailpass.