[wjeanw]

Well, here's one case - a twenty year old young man who our mission started to work with as he was a common street person (into drugs, etc.) around our coffeebar. He was in an automobile accident when he was eighteen and crippled so that he couldn't do the job he graduated from high school to do. (The accident only affected the grip in his right hand and one leg was slightly shorter than the other so he had a slight limp.) The Dutch social services put him on the dole (with health services) for 80% of his salary for the REST OF HIS LIFE! Having no option to work, he found the challenge of living off the street something that gave him purpose. Every month when his dole check would come, he would take a week and spend all of it on drugs, prositution, etc. then take to the streets for the rest of the month, getting food by stealing and begging. At night he would sleep with squatters (people who break into empty buildings).

[Looking4Truth]

Thanks for the insight.

I lived in Germany for a while and saw (and heard from the locals that I socialized with) things about the 'street people' that blew my mind. "That guy gets 2000DM a month just to beg.", etc, etc.

I've seen a lot of 'street people' here in the States and if they 'only knew' about the EU welfare state, the US would not have a 'homeless problem' at all.

Heck, these people here would sober up and get jobs long enough to try and gain citizenship in a place like Amsterdam just for those type of 'benefits'.