The other night, I sat and watched a piece off commercial German TV (RTL network) from the 'Armes Deutschland'.....translated to mean the 'poor of Germany'. Basically, it's a reality show where the TV crew follows these dozen-odd poverty folks around and reports on their woes and suffering.
To be honest, I watch a fair amount of shows like this each month (maybe eight to twelve hours per month), if you count the various networks and all of their reality shows on poverty that relate to each other.
Initially, I questioned how this was entertaining, or of any interest. After three or four viewings, I came to this different view of poverty-reality-TV. For about a third of the people involved, I felt some compassion and was agreeable to the idea that they needed extra help, and they were probably the type of people that you could pick up.....reconstruct their miserable lives of poverty, and they'd become productive people in society (at least by German standards). The rest? Between drug, alcohol, lack of desire, no willingness to work.....it was a hopeless case.
This week, I caught a brief ten minute stretch of this Armes Deutschland show, and 'Martin' (my name for the German young guy....probably around age 23)....had come to a local barber for a haircut. The TV folks let you know....he'd already done two years in some German prison for some crime. He's got some girlfriend who is now pregnant, and he's unemployed....on Hartz IV (German welfare). His apprentice work deal? Well....he quit that. No one explains why, and that's left to be a mystery.
So he's shown up for this haircut, and the lady barber is discussing his economic issues. It's the middle of the month, and all he has left in his pocket is 20 Euro (roughly 25 US dollars). The rest is spent (you get the impression that a fair amount was spent on cigarettes and alcohol).
The shame of being on welfare? For the barber, in some friendly but blunt German way....she hints that if you were working and making a regular income.....you wouldn't feel shame. 'Martin'? Well....he didn't feel any shame.
In Martin's estimation....if you couldn't clear 25 Euro an hour (with taxes, pension, medical insurance all coming against your income)....WHY WORK? Naturally, this really struck the barber lady in a negative way.
Here is the basis of the system today, where a fair number of people believe that income levels are screwed up and they refuse to participate in work if you are marginally making enough to just barely survive. If that's the case, in their mind....why bother working, and just allow the public to support you while you sit at home.
Here's the thing....you've easily got a million-plus Germans (not immigrants or migrants) sitting at home and receiving Hartz IV welfare payments to survive. Most of these people are probably capable of working....maybe they need a year of skill-craft training or some certification effort, but they could work. Yet they sit at home on welfare. The general public? They want some effort by the government to 'drag' these people back into life and force them into some work situation.
My suggestion....evaluate those with health issues and separate them from the rest. Then bring the work-capable crowd into their local city unemployment office and announce a new procedure. You show up daily at a warehouse....hand over your cellphones at the front door....then stay within the enclosure for eight hours. Give them a sandwich and drink at lunch, but mandate that they stay there (no TV, radio, or internet access), or accept some job-placement deal or training school situation.
People watching this reality show will sit and shake their heads....it's a negative society that is existing now, and tax revenue is required to support it.
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