Just Deserts: The Moral Economy of Welfare in Europe and the United States Arno Dübel is Germany’s most famous welfare recipient. The media first discovered him in 2001 when he appeared in a daytime TV show stating that welfare is great because “work is shit.” In 2010, he was back, capturing the nation’s attention with his view that “people who work are idiots.” He had now been on welfare for 31 years, because “working sucks” and “it’s tiring.” Together with his dog Snoopy and two parakeets he lived in a tiny, run-down apartment in Hamburg. He had no girlfriend because he had enough “complications” in his life. He ingested most of his calories in the form of beer and cheap wine, both from the ALDI food discounter, and despite his asthma and (latent) tuberculosis he smoked all day. Born in 1956, he completed 8th grade but dropped out of vocational training in 1975 after repeated confrontations with his boss who demanded that he cut off his ponytail. Arno still has the ponytail, now thin, greasy, and grey, but he has not worked since. According to his caseworker, Arno was “renitent and a hopeless case.” Since the early 2000s, the welfare office had suggested many suitable job openings but Arno’s standard reaction was that “this job is shit.” Waiting tables was “too stressful for me. I would have to run around with a tray and then there’s something in my way and I stumble and fall…” Working in construction was “a cool thing! But I have no clue about construction… Nope, that’s all shit.” After a few years the caseworkers switched to work habituation for the long-term unemployed. Yet, Arno always had a sick note from one of the doctors he frequented, even though the public health officer had repeatedly determined that “the patient is basically able to work.” Arno conceded that he was “basically able to work. But I am also too sick.” yalechess.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/kahl02-2014.pdf
Posted on: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 02:45:57 +0000
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