No, not really into the whole spanking scene for my kid. Do you know why? Because I believe all these people are doing it wrong, the punishment-for-stuff methodology.
Let me explain. I've been a child, of course, and as a child I have pissed off my parents on more than one occasion. Do you think a child necessarily takes from their parents the lesson that is to be learned from a hit? Too logical. Children aren't always reasonable, and you may even be punishing them for that issue, so why would you think they're going to react reasonably to being hit?
Oh, I'm sure some get the right message, but it's just as easily that the child doesn't agree with or actually listen to the point of the act. They just begin to hate. Nevermind the grand lesson you're trying to teach here. Their mind is going "You hit me and I don't like that!". They all do that, probably. That's Point A to Point B. The ones who respond correctly go to Point C, which is to understand that the reason they were hit was to stop them when they're doing something wrong.
But you're not always going to get that reaction. It's just as easy to get to Point B and immediately hate their parents. They grow up thinking "Why couldn't you think of some better way to handle this?" whenever driving a point home with a strike. Basically, if we were to run this parallel to the notion of the carrot and stick, the kid's not interested in the carrot. They want to break the stick over your head.
This can happen to anyone in their childhood. It can happen to me. It can happen to you. It can happen to anyone. Sometimes, the kid decides "Screw the rules, it's my turn for violence!", and you read about some dead parents in the paper. Other times, the kid learns their own morality and denounces the parents because the lesson they taught wasn't really helpful but harmful. We all grow up differently.
Personally, I'm not up for the spanking idea for anyone I raise. I'll stop 'im dead in his tracks in the middle of that wrong thing and obstruct it until it's the furthest thing from his mind, and he won't get to do anything until he understands he can't do that thing. If you were the all-powerful parent of a child who is essentially helpless before you, why would you hit when you can just put a hold on his world - a great big pause button - until he gets it. I've been a kid, and I know what drives them. It's safer and more meaningful to break flow on his fun than to slap him around.