GETTING THE COUNTRY OFF ITS KNEES - OR BACK ON THEM?
In the US, one of the options for dealing with the unemployed homeless is to ship them to California, preferably Santa Monica, where they may still be homeless, but they can at least look tanned and healthy.

But in Dresden, Germany, local businesswoman Silvia Rau has another option for keeping the unemployed off the street: subsidised sex. At the Villa Bijou brothel, showing your unemployment card will get you a 20% discount on services rendered. In the true spirit of humanity, the local prostitutes' union decided that one way of helping the "long-term unemployed out of their depression" is to offer discount doggy-style and concessionary copulation.

Rau is also hoping to reverse the flaccid number of clients frequenting her establishment. The average has drooped from 150 per month to only 80, so cut-price coitus is seen as a way of swelling those figures, thrusting forward with firmer customer numbers and rock-solid profitability.

Doubtless US lawmakers - and Nevada entrepreneurs - are looking at similar ways to arouse new business. If enough people were eligible for low-cost bonking, then the accompanying rise in support services could be immeasurable. Condom sales, lubricants, STD clinic out-patient fees, penicillin sales - the list is endless.

Kudos to Ms. Rau for coming up with such a spirited solution to the problem of unemployment.