It could be viewed as a nasty side effect either of the legalization of prostitution or out-of-control welfare reform policies. The result is the logical conclusion of a combination of both errors.

Sure, this policy provides women with an incentive to become prostitutes -- if they don't, they'll be unemployed, and without unemployment insurance benefits. But that's exactly what happens under U.S. unemployment insurance policy. The difference is that in the U.S., women are encouraged to become prostitutes, but then punished criminals if they do so. Oh, and in the U.S., if a woman CAN'T get a job as a prostitute, we still deny her unemployment benefits after one year.

In the U.S., women are also faced with the hard choice of prostituting themselves or living without unemployment benefits. The choice just comes earlier (around 36 weeks, instead of 52), and doesn't depend on having a job offer from a brothel -- you lose your unemployment benefits NO MATTER WHAT.

So, you can live in Germany, and risk losing your unemployment benefits after a year if a brothel offers you a job -- or you can live in the U.S., and be CERTAIN to lose unemployment benefits after a year, whether or not a brothel wants you.

So which policy is more likely to force a woman to become a prostitute? Standing alone, neither; both equally incent a woman with no other options to sell her body. The difference is that the U.S. will prosecute the woman for doing so, while Germany will tax the woman for doing so.

In one way, the german law is kinder to women. The U.S. law doesn't help out women who can't find work as prostitutes; the German law continues to provide such women with unemployment insurance.

In fact, the German system may "force" fewer women into prostitution. Because prostitution is legal, everyone who wants to be a prostitute but avoided the profession because of criminal penalties is now free to work in that job. So the position is more likely to be filled by a woman who wants to be a prostitute, rather than one who feels she has no comparable legal career options in life.

The U.S. system also equally "forces" women to become prostitutes. The only "force" causing a German woman to become a prostitute is the possibility of losing her unemployment benefits.

If a woman in the U.S. complained that losing her unemployment benefits after one year (which WILL HAPPEN) "forced" her to become a prostitute, would you believe her? No. She was free to look for employment elsewhere -- losing her unemployment benefits didn't "force" her to break the law.

If she said "but if I didn't become a prostitute, I would have been unemployed, with no unemployment benefits!" would you then concede that, yes, U.S. unemployment policy "forced" her to become a prostitute? I wouldn't.

In the same way, denying benefits to a woman who has the opportunity to work at a legal brothel doesn't "force" her to take the job. She can look for another job, without the aid of benefits -- just like she'd have to in the U.S. after one year of collecting unemployment insurance.

Excellent comment, Aaron.

Aaron, as you may know, unemployment benefits in the U.S. are handled by individual states. For example, here's Minnesota's unemployment benefits handbook.

Minnesota's benefits do expire after one year. But an unemployed worker can re-apply after that year is up and if that person has been actively seeking employment, they'll probably be accepted. And there's also welfare, WIC, and other programs. So we certainly aren't throwing people out on the streets after a year. (It's possible Germany has these other sorts of programs, too, of course.) Not to mention the likelihood that an able-bodied person in the U.S. who is willing to take any job available will find employment before that year is up.

So while you make an interesting point, your analysis is overly simplistic.

It seems that the story cannot be independently confirmed and may well be false:

http://www.theennead.com/amptoons/blog/archives/2005/02/01/false-story-alert-women-in-germany-probably-not-being-forced-into-prostitution-by-welfare-state/

Apologies for the crazy long URL, but it's well worth the copy and paste.

I am not sure how I happend upon this site. All I can say is it is so pathetic that you can clearly dislike a country so much that you find a way to justify a socialist country like Germanys law, which persuades women to work as prostitutes. I thank God that the US as well as just a few other countries in the world have some common sense.