This Is Not From the Onion

Monday, January 31, 2005

It serves me right. A few days ago I made the mistake of comparing something to prostitution... and now this new story pops up from Germany (Hat tip to DailyPundit):

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.

It's one thing to make prostitution legal. Fine. It's another to pretend that because it's legal, nobody should have a moral problem with it, and therefore force unwilling people into the sex trade. Who the hell thought this up? As far as I'm concerned, this borders on rape through blackmail... or at the very least government sanctioned sexual harassment.

I consider myself pretty liberal on most social issues like sex, prostitution, gay marriage, and even drug use. Then I read stuff like this. Some people are willing to swing the pendulum so far to the other side, that it makes me start to fear where we're going myself. Maybe all those Conservative Christians fearing for their lives from the liberal hordes have a point. How would you like it if your daughter was forced into prostitution by the government or not receive unemployment any more?

Posted at 1:40 PM by Nick | | |

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Comments:

Now, do we really think that they are trying to force people into the sex trade? It is much more likely that they are specifically trying to cut down on paying unemployment benefits. I suppose that being in a country where unemployment benefits don't last over a year makes me not nearly as concerned about this as I might otherwise be. (Personally, I'm sure I could figure out a way to support my daughter rather than let her go unwillingly into the sex trade)

Posted at February 01, 2005 2:07 PM by

Anonymous

It's not so much as being "forced" into the sex trade... as they are making people choose between not getting any more unemployment benefits, or becoming a prostitute.

If they want to offer that as a job possibility, I can buy into that. I'm sure some people would be willing to do it if they new the job was available. But saying that you either take this, or get nothing at all is so out of line, it's not even fathomable in my mind.

Posted at February 01, 2005 2:32 PM by

Nick

Can anyone tell me what the government, any government in the West, would call it if I told my secretary that she wouldn't get payed unless she had sex with me?

I'll bet it would not be referred to as an economy measure.

The Christian right has a real point.

Posted at February 04, 2005 2:11 AM by

Anonymous