Lisa, I’ll have some more detailed thoughts on your post later, but the story about some German women being forced to chose between prostitution and welfare benefits struck me as being either (1) an account of the acts of a truly aberrant social worker (in quite a number of senses of that word) or (2) an urban myth. The usually reliable Snopes has looked into the story and myth is (more or less) what it appears to be. Thank heavens for that. You can judge for yourself here.