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| Does Germany show the way for the USA? |
Erewhon |
05/08/06 |
Germany's jobless urged to take work in asparagus harvest
ALLAN HALL IN BERLIN
EUROPE'S largest legal annual migration is under way with university professors joining roadsweepers and the jobless to pour into Germany from eastern Europe to pick asparagus.
People come in their tens of thousands from Poland and the Czech Republic for two-months of plucking that which Germans love to see on their dinner tables, but of whose harvest they want no part.
Living.scotsman.com MPU
Once again the German government is throwing money at the nation's five million jobless, trying to persuade and cajole them into working for a change. But asparagus-picking is one job they refuse to do.
The asparagus spring harvest is again stirring a heated controversy over the use of seasonal workers from abroad who some complain are taking away jobs from unemployed Germans.
The return of about 300,000 Poles on work permits this season, and several thousand Czechs, has become a national controversy as many people wonder why some of Germany's jobless can't do the work.
Using a carrot-and-stick strategy, the German labour office has launched a campaign to fill at least 10 per cent of seasonal harvest jobs with Germans on the dole. According to Edelgard Woythe, the head of the local employment office in Potsdam - the capital of Brandenburg where 50,000 unemployed could theoretically do the job - the government is trying everything to get Germans into the fields.
"We've put in enormous efforts to convince people to work in the fields," she said. "We've set up training sessions where people can learn how to pick asparagus."
Despite an extra bonus of 25 (£18) a day and free transport to the fields, among Brandenburg's army of jobless only 154 have so far taken on harvesting jobs.
Germans can earn between £1,400-£3,000 during the six-week asparagus season.
If that's not enough of an incentive, some of the unemployed may be made to learn the hard way - through cuts in their benefits.
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How would this go down in the USA? Should feckless Americans who would rather be on the dole than pick the nation's lettuce have their handouts cut if they refuse to take the jobs available?
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Clarification/Follow-up by quixotic_Choux on 05/08/06 9:14 pm:
If all unemployed or underemployed men were removed from society, America would be a different country, violent crime would go down unbelieveably.
I think we should start doing this now. All men must work full time, either by private employment or working for the government on projects that benefit all society.
Clarification/Follow-up by Itsdb on 05/08/06 9:28 pm:
I see, Choux. So men are the root of all evil. Does this work requirement benefit 'all society' or everyone but men?
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