The missing link is the benefits. They equate cutting unemployment benefits to coercion to take the unwanted position (no pun intended). If they had any gumption they would get off the couch and find something to do useful to society, and the compensation would follow. That's the natural order of things - not waiting for a government check.
Excellent point.
In all due respect, it isn't as easy there as it is in the US to seek gainful empoyment.
Unions are strong in Germany, and many jobs require prerequisite education and the obtainment of some type of certificate of mastery.
The new unemployment / welfare reform (Hartz IV) has lowered benefits and required the acceptance of job offers without consideration of wages and location, but hasn't addressed the issue of the often cumbersome educational prerequisites for gainful employment, IMHO.
Hartv IV is pretty invasive. From what I've studied about it, some issues, such as the requirement to take any employment regardless of wage, and the inclusion of all household members in a study of the unemployed's financial standing.
I figured that municipalities would start hiring public works employees at rock bottom wages, similar to the WPA in the depression. I didn't think of the prostitution angle. Even if stories such as the above aren't true, they are plausible under the regulations of Hartz IV.
Moving to Germany has been an option for me for quite some time, and I have looked into employment there in the past. Under these circumstances, however, I wouldn't go near the place.
my 2 cents.
longjack