It's not that the Thai people have no problem with the sex trade. The Thai I've spoken about it with โ some of whom have themselves worked in, or have family in the sex trade โ have consistently less sanguine attitudes than you seem to think. Rather, it's that the Thai are more forgiving of their notion of a man's need to fuck everything he possibly can, coupled with an awareness of how much money sex tourism brings into the economy โ even leaving aside the technically illegal direct exchanges of money for sex.
Then there's the cultural attitude that money is money, however you get it; that, for many of the young country women that make up the overwhelming majority of the Thai sex trade, making a living on their backs is preferable to making a much lower living in a factory or on a farm; that many of these girls are actually supporting their families back in the country; the failures of the Thai educational system to turn out citizens, particularly women, who can get better jobs than those alternatives, and so on.
Ugly, and sometimes even evil, but complicated. Also, be careful about those judgements. She owned a hair and nail salon, had a couple of employees, and everything. I can't count the number of times I saw other farang looking at us and, by the expressions on their faces, making the assumption that she was on the job.
It kinda sucks being on the receiving end of prejudice. I get the sex-positive arguments for legal prostitution, but I think it's worth comparing Thailand's red-light scene with other countries like Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, Australia, even the US in places where prostitution is legalized.
Compared to these countries, Thailand's sex tourism scene seems far more seedy and exploitive. The the racial and economic aspects of it are especially alarming. That's fair, but let's be reasonable here.
