IT’S MUCH MORE IF YOU INCLUDE DINNER OR HELP WITH TERM PAPERS AS PAYMENT: Six Percent of Americans Have Accepted Payment for Sex: For those ages 30-44, it rises to almost 10 percent.

Overall, slightly more people say getting paid for sex should be illegal (43 percent) than say that it should be legal (40 percent)—although with a 4.5 percent of margin of error on the study, the opposite could just as well be true. Seventeen percent weren’t sure. A somewhat larger number of respondents were in favor of criminalizing the purchase of sex, with 45 percent in favor, 39 opposed, and 17 percent again unsure.

Among the youngest cohort, however, a full 50 percent of respondents said it should be illegal to pay for sex and 46 percent said it should be illegal to accept payment for it.

The gender divide in prostitution views was also stark, with men significantly more likely than women to say that both buying and selling sex should be legal. Half of male respondents said paying for sex should be legal, a position shared by just 29 percent of female respondents. Just 37 percent of male respondents said it should be criminalized, while 52 of the women surveyed did.

The breakdown was similar for accepting payment for sex: 51 percent of men said it should be legal and 36 percent said it should be illegal, while just 30 percent of women said it should be legal and 50 percent said it should be illegal.

Like taxi drivers who oppose Uber, there’s a fair amount of protectionism here, I think.