The Wingnuts always love a good punching bag
They will whack at it (or wank it up,) until they’re left with, well, nothing. Reacting to this story:
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.
Living on the Edge writes:
The Joys of Socialism!
So you want all those yummy European social programs here in the U.S.A?
scrawlville.com adds:
And Europe is better than the US because….
Woman told to take job as prostitute or risk losing benefits
Unions-Firms-Markets wins the prize for cranking up the hyperbole while knowing shit about the topic:
The link above will bring readers to an article about a disturbing trend [!] in Germany where women who turn down working in brothels are being denied unemployment benefits under Germany’s new unemployment laws.
Really?
Well, it’s Tuesday… and we just want to say… Sadly, No! The article quotes three people by name, including Hamburg lawyer Mechthild Garweg. A story like, we figured, would get some coverage in the German-speaking press. It did, sort of:
“There exists the danger that women will be forced to work as prostitutes if they don’t want to see their unemployment benefits cut” according to Mechthild Garweg. [Our translation]
Did you read that? There exists the danger. Does that sound like “a disturbing trend?” Does Sadly, No! seem like a good answer? What about various government officials, did they have anything to say in that one story we could find?
No one will be compelled to work as a sex worker if they do not want to,” says Ulrich Waschki. [Our translation]
Ah.
“We are not sending anyone to do immoral work” [-sittenwidrige, anyone have a better translation?] according to Olaf M?ller.
Der Standard (Austria) adds:
For the lawmakers prostitution is no longer immoral, but for the unemployment offices it still is.
The joys of socialism? Europe sucks? Disturbing trends?
Sadly, No!
Snopes has more.
That FPP site is run by holocaust-denier David “What Would Hitler Do?” Irving, so anyone taking their lead from him really is a wanker.
How does this discredit socialism? This sounds like it discredits Clinton-style welfare reform.
Thanks. I corrected my post can I still keep my wingnut award?
-Mathias
Work as a Prostitute or Lose Your Benefits!
Link: Real History and the coming threat of European laws to our women. London, Sunday, January 30, 2005(words in red reflect changes made after winning a wingnut award) Talk about unintended consequences. The link above will bring readers to an
Prostitution is legal in most states in Australia, and the same claims about women being “forced” to work as prostitutes by government employment agencies were made here.
They turned out to be utter bullshit, of course.
Is asborbshun sold in germany?
Coercion and prostitution
If it doesn’t make sense to stigmatize sex work for the purposes of criminalization, can such distinctions be justified with respect to welfare benefits?
My mother was a prostitute and it was great.
thanks for going after this, I’ve been trying to do my share yesterday.
(and “immoral” is right on target (http://dict.leo.org/?lp=ende&lang=de&searchLoc=0&cmpType=relaxed&relink=on§Hdr=on&spellToler=std&search=sittenwidrig) provided you have non-absolutist understanding of “moral”. Sittenwidrig is closer to “against good morals/mores” or “against decency” than to some circle of hell or other.)
Two more links to recounts in the German press (plus discussion) in this post at BtD http://www.beggingtodiffer.com/archives/2005_02.html#002341
and here: http://xrlq.com/archives/2005/01/31/2134/unemployed-german-prostitutes/
Wassamarrer, you want to ruin a good story with a lot of lousy facts?
Damn it! And I was going to contact the German consulate to see how to get a green card.
Thanks for clearing that up. BTW: what’s up with this?
The commenter above on welfare reform beat me to the punch. The only people in this country interested in forcing people of benefits unless they take any job offered (no matter how menial, below their skillsets, or completely wrong for them) are the Contract on America crowd.
Gotta make shit up to keep those hitz coming!
Et Tu, Lileks!
It pains me to add James Lileks, whom I generally respect, to the long list of right wing bloggers who were all too eager to believe the phony story about unemployed German women being coerced into prostitution. I have little choice but to give Lileks…