Prost! If you'll
clean our room for us;
A project is underway in Essen in which alcoholics are paid in beer to clean up the city's streets.
And
Deutsche Welle had no trouble finding out how it's going;
"I'm not doing this just for the beer,” Jürgen said. "I can
find beer on my own. I can get drunk anytime I want. This is something
that allows me to help the people around me, and it gives me a chance to
give back to my city."
Not that everyone agrees;
Simone
said she'd been here in Essen for the past 18 years, a period in which
the "drinking and drug scene" around the main station has steadily
grown.
"People that hang out here are addicts, but it's not only alcohol.
Many of us are junkies. Heroin, cocaine, crystal [methamphetamine], you
name it, you'll find people here that use it," Simone said, adding that
alcohol abuse among drug users at the Essen station was a kind of common
denominator.
She doesn't, however, approve of the new project.
"I don't have a job because I don't want one, and I doubt that anybody
would want to hire me in my current state. But am I going to take part
in a charity scheme that pays me one euro [an hour] to make a fool of
myself? I can get more money begging in 10 minutes. And, quite honestly,
a beer costs 25 cents here. Am I going to sweep the streets for three
beers? No chance."
It's
Die Opportunitätskosten, dumm Kopf!
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