I was spanked as a kid and it did me no harm. I was more worried about getting some sort of prolonged punishment such as being grounded for a month than being spanked, learning my lesson and moving on.

Spoiled, barbaric kids are one of the biggest problems in western society. On my way down to the coast last week a screaming toddler was performing constantly on the plane with the mother trying to console him with some sort of weak disciplinary technique which was more like bargaining than parenting. It even got worse and he started throwing his food around. It wasn't hard to see what all the passengers around them were thinking. On the way back a week later there was a similar child. The mother put him over her knee and spanked his butt once. It was like a thunderclap, but after that he sat still and was normal.

There's nothing wrong with negative reinforcement. It just took some idiots who beat their kids blue or used whips and iron bars to ruin it for all of us. Now you can't touch kids and its a free for all. Just look at the anarchy in cinemas these days.