The System

I admit it....I watch too much German Hartz IV TV programming.  My German wife even criticizes my interest.

Several of the commercial networks now in Germany feature at least two or three shows per week, where the camera crews hang out with welfare folks, and you get an hour of seven to ten Germans on Hartz IV (the welfare program).

Lina will have been unemployed for seven years, have 3k Euro of tattoos, show no signs of money management while at the grocery, and chain-smoke 35 cigarettes per day (which she personally rolls herself).

Mila hasn't worked since the 6th of August 1997.  She'll have a detailed explanation of the day, and how she got terminated at the grocery for habitual errors at her job.  She'll be the one that seems to be a bit 'dopey' and obviously smoking weed more than once or twice a day.  How she pays for the weed out of Hartz IV money is never detailed. 

Karl has worked sixteen jobs over the past decade, and none of them more than two months.  He seems to habitually want to correct his bosses, and tell people how to fix things. 

Lukas is a 50-year old skinny-as-a-rail alcoholic that consumes sixteen half-liter cheap beers per day.  He, luckily, has his sister who does his laundry and ensures he gets lunch each day.  If he remembers anything after 4 PM each day....he's lucky. 

Yeah, it's soap-opera like and after several weeks of viewing.....you kinda know the individual.  These are all individuals who you'd regard as failures in life, and discarded by the system with 'free' money to marginally keep them going in life.

It's obvious that 50-percent of the group could recover and be productive, but you'd have to invent a support structure....with daily coaching, some form of drug/alcohol rehab, and force them to move out of their neighborhood/city to start a new life. 

The odd thing is that they've all been recruited to be in these shows, and form some type of unusual 'entertainment' for the general public.  This is not the kind of entertainment that existed twenty years ago......this is more like a soap opera, with twists and turns....some amusing....some very serious in nature.  In some cases, you feel awful sorry for the person.  In other cases, you'd like for some German social worker to kick the lazy ass out of the person.

Peaked out?  This has been a trend for at least five years, and I would imagine another five will occur before the public tires of the 'shows'.