Welfare reform and legalized prostitution in Germany

Via Drudge and Daypop (which shows 43 blogs linking to it before me), this Telegraph article looks at one consequence of legalizing prostitution in Germany: 'If you don't take a job as a prostitute, we can stop your benefits'.

A 25-year-old waitress who turned down a job providing "sexual services" at a brothel in Berlin faces possible cuts to her unemployment benefit under laws introduced this year.

Prostitution was legalised in Germany just over two years ago and brothel owners – who must pay tax and employee health insurance – were granted access to official databases of jobseekers.

The waitress, an unemployed information technology professional, had said that she was willing to work in a bar at night and had worked in a cafe.

She received a letter from the job centre telling her that an employer was interested in her "profile'' and that she should ring them. Only on doing so did the woman, who has not been identified for legal reasons, realise that she was calling a brothel.

Under Germany's welfare reforms, any woman under 55 who has been out of work for more than a year can be forced to take an available job – including in the sex industry – or lose her unemployment benefit. Last month German unemployment rose for the 11th consecutive month to 4.5 million, taking the number out of work to its highest since reunification in 1990.

The government had considered making brothels an exception on moral grounds, but decided that it would be too difficult to distinguish them from bars. As a result, job centres must treat employers looking for a prostitute in the same way as those looking for a dental nurse.

I can't work up any outrage over this. Certainly the state should not force anyone into prostitution or any other job they find objectionable. But does placing limits on welfare benefits really constitute "forcing" a particular person to take a particular job? Being unemployed sucks, no question, but this unnamed waitress/IT professional has had more than a year to look for jobs, learn new skills, take classes, do freelance or temp work, sponge off mom and dad, whatever, while receiving a regular income. Now she's off the dole and has to fend for herself, boo hoo.

Daze Reader believes welfare reform and legalizing prostitution were both smart policies. Opponents of either can use this story for sensationalistic propaganda: "Welfare reform means the state is forcing women into prostitution!" or "Legalized prostitution means the state is forcing women into prostitution!" Most blog citations of this article fall into the latter category, resulting in the odd spectacle of conservative pundits (eg, 1 2 3) defending permanent unrestricted unemployment benefits as some sort of inalienable right.

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