A dozen cheeseburgers

Will work for cheesburgers

I’d have to be drunk to make sense of something I recently read that, instead, left me shaking my head.

There’s a new program in the Netherlands where the city of Amsterdam has partnered up with a local charity.  

This new program is supposed to improve neighborhoods and the lives of alcoholics.

This program works by offering alcoholics beer in exchange for light work collecting litter, eating a decent meal and sticking to their schedule. 

Further details reveal that alcoholic participants show up for work at 9:00 a.m. three days a week.  

Before starting work they drink two beers.  Then they work a morning shift, eat lunch, drink two more beers, work an afternoon shift, and then drink a final beer.  

Supposedly, if they do a good job they might get a bonus beer.

Their total compensation is about €19 (that’s 19 Euros) which is about $26 in beer, tobacco, a meal and cash.  Participants shared that a lot of the cash goes towards more beer.

Time will tell if this program works for these alcoholics but my intuition is that is won’t.  

But before I draw a final conclusion, I’ll ask a gym friend I know who is a recovering addict actively working an Alcoholic Anonymous program.

Maybe if this program shines with success, next up will be a program for obese people who sign up to work in exchange for a dozen cheeseburgers.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum