Abstract

Social work has much professionalised within the last decades. What once was Samaritan charity or the housewife’s duty, has become a major economic factor in the western world. The author treats two questions: a) what differentiates social from economic work, and b) how can a just reward for social work be taxed? Starting with the parable of the Samaritan, it is argued that social work is not productive at all, but consumtive. Since there is no yield, at first sight no wage is justified. Social work has no economic, but only moral ends. And morality is no matter of exchange (Kant). The solution the author proposes is threefold: 1) Since the social worker passes his chance for economic income when healing (social) wounds, he shall be compensated (in the range of A. Smith’s limit of wages); 2) For social work is some sort of social internal labour, it should be freed of all taxes and dues; 3) Jobs in the economy shall be opened to social professionals.