If you don't take a job as a prostitute, we can stop your unemployment.

[rhino47]

This is very scary.Can you imagine not being able to legally turn down a job as a prostitue without losing benefits?

'If you don't take a job as a prostitute, we can stop your benefits'
By Clare Chapman
(Filed: 30/01/2005)

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.

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.




http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/01/30/wgerm30.xml

[FloridaPat]

1. Are men in these houses of prostitution? If not, I would think it's

discrimination. Outside of that, this sounds like something * and the repubs would do.

[mrcheerful]

2. That was first tried in Las Vegas during the Reagan years.

The state repukes said single moms could go to work for the Bunny Ranch and therefore welfare was not needed in the Vegas area. Dem's shut that program down real fast. So much for repuke morals.

[funflower]

3. Here is Snopes' take on this story (I fell for it at first, too).

http://www.snopes.com/media/notnews/brothel.asp

Claim: Women in Germany face the loss of unemployment benefits if they decline to accept work in brothels.

Status: False.

Example:

[bbinacan]

4. Thanks for setting us straight. n/t

[funflower]

6. You're welcome. I forwarded that Telegraph story to just about everyone

I knew when it came out a year ago.

[Art_from_Ark]

7. The Telegraph = the British version of the Midnight Globe

[funflower]

15. I'll remember that. Thanks.

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. Not really - more a British equivalent of the Dallas Morning News

It is conservative - always has been, always will be. On one or two subjects, notably the European Union, it is deeply sceptical, which makes it exaggerate stories about regulations in other EU countries. But it prints a lot of straight forward news as well (proably more than any other paper in Britain). For instance, Michael Smith, the journalist who exposed the 'Downing Street Memo', used to work for it, and he showed us many of the associated memos about manufacturing of the case for war in the Telegraph. We just didn't pay so much attention then.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/09/18/nwar118.xml

[rhino47]

9. Thanks for debunking that.

I was rather upset about the story.What a relief that it was not true.

[Ilsa]

10. But the story about the repukes wanting single women in the

las vegas area to go to the bunny ranch was true, wasn't it?

[Clark2008]

17. Thank you.

Not only for proving that story to be false, but for keeping my head from exploding.

I was getting physically ill at the thought that I am still only meat in some countries. I only provide those kind of services to my new husband (I was a single Mom for nearly five years. It sucks, believe me, when it comes to the financial side. Of course, having a wonderful child and being rid of a cheating, abusive husband doesn't suck at all).

[funflower]

21. We women are still "meat" in some countries. I just hope Germany isn't

one of them.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

27. What countries are those, and why?

If you're talking about Islamic theocracies, we couldn't agree more. Anywhere else?

[funflower]

32. I hear things aren't so great in Thailand.

At least for the teens sold into prostitution.

[Mutley]

31. Thanks for posting that.

I was about to reconsider my opinion that prostitution should be legal (and heavily regulated) in the US. :o

[funflower]

33. There certainly would need to be a few wrinkles to think about if it were

legalized.

[Mutley]

34. Oh yes, definately.

This story being one of them (even though it's not true, it's not beyond the realm of possibility). But I think it would be better overall, once the wrinkles are worked out, if prostitution were legal.

[funflower]

35. Interesting issue. I guess one could look to Nevada to see how it's

working there.

[meow2u3]

5. Isn't there a provision allowing for religious exemptions?

There are women who refuse to work as hookers because their religion forbids it. Or does she have to compromise her religious beliefs just to collect unemployment?

[liberalhistorian]

8. Snopes has debunked it,

it isn't true. Can't imagine a government looney-tunes enough to not only consider it but actually get away with it.

[DanCa]

11. You know I could swear that Laura Bush was talking about abstinence

A few days ago. I wonder how does this fit in with her speech.

[BurningDog]

12. Welcome to socialism.

A socialist society can't sustain itself without forcing people to work.

[tkmorris]

13. What utter claptrap

But thanks for chiming in.

[readmoreoften]

14. welcome to urban legends

As if capitalist societies don't force people to work. Pick a talking point, already. Do socialists force everyone to work or do they let everyone suck off the system without contributing? Hmm, kind of sounds like capitalism. Let the poor work and let the rich kids suck off the system without contributing.

[ProfessorGAC]

18. Unbrilliant

While i don't ascribe to socialism, on a grand scale, this situation is EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE OF SOCIALISM! It is purely, and unambiguously a product of tax redistribution in a capitalist economy.

Hence, your statement is the opposite of brilliant.
The Professor

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

20. Not every forum in DU is like the Guns forum.

Some things are not tolerated outside the little box you came from.

Edit: I changed my mind. Please go on. DO make your political opinions known to the general population of DU.

[converted_democrat]

24. What udder BS.. You're either horribly uninformed, or you're

ignorant to the entire concept of socialism..

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

26. N posts, N-1 on the Guns forum, one here -- this one.

I tells ya, that place is UNHOLY.

[BurningDog]

29. Utter lies. Get your facts straight.

I have at least 2 others in GD, one in latest breaking news, and one in the Lounge.

However, thanks for helping to make a trolling post in a non-story that had been called fake 20 hours before I posted my most popular post yet!

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

30. Active posts only. Did not search archives. -nt

[Dora]

25. No, a corporatocracy is what you're thinking of. n/t

[raccoon]

28. And a capitalist society does very well, if you're lucky and/or

chose the right parents.

If you fit into neither of these categories, you're SOL.

[Claymore]

19. WTF!!!

The government had considered making brothels an exception on moral grounds, but decided that it would be too difficult to distinguish them from bars."


...jeez, what the fuck kinda bars do they have in Germany that you can't distinguish them from a cathouse? :rofl:

[NYCGirl]

22. Read all the posts in this thread. The article is a FAKE. NT

[Freddie Stubbs]

23. This story is a hoax:

http://www.snopes.com/media/notnews/brothel.asp