I am presently reading Jonathan Last’s What To Expect When No One’s Expecting, which is about depopulation the the perils of the population bust. I thought I would pass this bit along:

On the western side of the country, the state of North Rhine Westphalia is suffering similar problems [of depopulation]. It has has been strugging to find enough workers to care for its bumper crop of retirees, forcing the state to take some radical steps. For instance, the government instituted a program to convert local prostitites into eldercare nurses. As one official told the British Medical Journal, “It’s an obvious move, since prostitutes possess good people skills, aren’t easily disgusted, and have zero fear of physical contact.”


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14 Responses to A New Use For The World’s Oldest Profession?

  1. Sheila Tone says:

    In an ideal world, this is true. Prostitution would just be another job, one that rewards and cultivates a set of useful, transferable skills. There wouldn’t be a high likelihood that its practitioners were drug-addled, very poorly educated, and/or had disabling mental illnesses or personality disorders that actually interfere with dealing with people except for quick, nonverbal interactions. Prostitutes from the movies would be great elder care nurses.

    • trumwill says:

      I’d had a similar thought. But given that they actually tried to go forward, I wonder if maybe prostitutes in North Rhine Westphalia are different than they are over here.

  2. Peter says:

    A while back I was sitting in my car in a strip mall parking lot eating a takeout Chinese lunch. Two or three doors down from the takeout joint where I’d gotten my cat beef and broccoli was an “Asian bodywork” spa. It’s pretty easy to figure out what part of the body they work.

    Anyway, a car pulled up and a big fat sweaty dirty man in his 60’s got out and waddled into the bodywork spa, a huge roll of bare stomach bulging out below his filthy T-shirt and hanging halfway to his knees. I was wondering whether the hooker’s sense of revulsion at this disgusting specimen of modern American humanity would prevail over her desire for money. He hadn’t come out by the time I finished my lunch a few minutes later and drove off, so apparently the lure of money triumphed.

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