Whatever is Not Forbidden Will Soon Become Mandatory
This
story in the Telegraph is sure to get some attention among the blogs.
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.
Germany legalized prostitution and cathouses a few years ago, and now some of the logical consequences of that decision are starting to manifest themselves. To the bureaucratic mind, if it's legal there's nothing wrong with it, and therefore it's perfectly legitimate to require somebody to work at that occupation. After all, it helps cut down on the unemployment rate:
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.
Too difficult to distinguish them from bars? I must be going to the wrong bars!
Hat Tip:
Tim Worstall (again!). I'll stop linking him when he stops finding so much good stuff!
