Unfit for Work: The startling rise of disability in America

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TacticalMom
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Unfit for Work: The startling rise of disability in America

Post by TacticalMom »

Interesting article. Ever wonder where they get those unemployement numbers from? Well they just don't count the disabled who are not working, or "can't" work.

http://apps.npr.org/unfit-for-work/?wpisrc=nl_wonk

Don't get me wrong. I know there are really disabled people out there that require help. But those that are receiving help, and or are classified as disabled who for all intents and purposes are able bodied. I think that is kinda shitty. Why you ask? Why would you not wanna help others... that is not the what I am getting at. I don't mind helping people with my taxes. However, I do mind helping those that don't wanna help themselves. While I work, pay my taxes, into all of the things we do, and I won't see a dime of my Social Security that I have been paying for when I come of age (note: I am also not allowed to stop paying into it, even if my share is going to be gone) . However, some people are drawing from the pot already and can work are able bodied but have found a loop hole.

Do I some days not wanna work? Hell yeah. Am I going to lie and cheat so that I don't have to? Nope, I was not raised that way.

"In the past three decades, the number of Americans who are on disability has skyrocketed. The rise has come even as medical advances have allowed many more people to remain on the job, and new laws have banned workplace discrimination against the disabled. Every month, 14 million people now get a disability check from the government.

The federal government spends more money each year on cash payments for disabled former workers than it spends on food stamps and welfare combined. Yet people relying on disability payments are often overlooked in discussions of the social safety net. People on federal disability do not work. Yet because they are not technically part of the labor force, they are not counted among the unemployed."


"Just out of curiosity, what is your disability?" the judge asked from the bench.
"I have high blood pressure," the man said.
"So do I," the judge said. "What else?"
"I have diabetes."
"So do I."

Also the whole 'Let's move people off state welfare onto federal disability' thing is bullpoop.

It is an interesting article and a good read. :coffee:
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Re: Unfit for Work: The startling rise of disability in America

Post by thekinetic »

Sorry mabey it was my upbringing by a capenter but people really are a bunch of pansies! I have a bad back, bad knees, migraines, carpal tunnel, tendonitis, and by now thanks to my genes high blood pressure. Not to mention my ever present OCD that likes rear it's ugly head now and then for me to fight off. Yet I still manage to work!

So those with piddly little illnesses can cry me a river build me a bridge and get over it. :coffee:

To those with real disabilities, you have my sympathies friends! :friends:
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lonestarag
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Re: Unfit for Work: The startling rise of disability in America

Post by lonestarag »

SS Disability is the biggest scam being perpetrated on US taxpayers today. It is bigger than the cash welfare program and bigger than food stamps (which is huge!) It is a scam and we are all footing the bill.
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Re: Unfit for Work: The startling rise of disability in America

Post by mamabearCali »

There are som people that are disabled. My cousin is one of them. Can't talk, can barely communicate, severe autism. She has to be supervised all the time to keep herself safe There are others I know who have a mild asthma case and they claim the same disability. One is real and irreversible the other is a controllable medical factor.

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Re: Unfit for Work: The startling rise of disability in America

Post by Reverenddel »

Wait...what? You can be "disabled" with High Blood Pressure, and Diabetes?

Pardon my language, but you have GOT to be muthaf'ckin' KIDDING me!?!?! Not only did I HAVE diabetes, I BEAT THAT MUTHAF'CKAH INTO SUBMISSION!

WHILE WORKING 40+HOURS!!

WITH PEOPLE I DO NOT LIKE!!!

AND TENDING SOME SLACKASSED BASTARD'S CHILDREN BECAUSE HE "DOES NOT FEEEEEEELLLL LIKE IT"!!!!!

Oh... I'm steamin. I should NEVER have read that... Oh... I have to go lift weights.

Kinetic? "....but people really are a bunch of pansies!" This... +1to INFINITY!
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Re: Unfit for Work: The startling rise of disability in America

Post by Jbecker »

I have a friend who is a quadriplegic from a motorcycle crash, and he was denied disability (though hopefully that gets reversed soon). And yet I see worthless shitbags who get it for the most trivial things. A broken system for sure.
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Re: Unfit for Work: The startling rise of disability in America

Post by Kreutz »

Oh do I have professional and personal stories about this. I'm hesitant to share since some of you may have a stroke.
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Re: Unfit for Work: The startling rise of disability in America

Post by ShotgunBlast »

Kreutz wrote:Oh do I have professional and personal stories about this. I'm hesitant to share since some of you may have a stroke.
And with our luck it'll be a stroke that doesn't finish them off so they'll add to the drain of our healthcare system. :whistle:
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Re: Unfit for Work: The startling rise of disability in America

Post by M1A4ME »

I know a guy who got hurt pretty bad a few years ago. He lost his job when his doctor would not release him to go back to work.

It the years since he lost that job he has mostly recovered. He camps out, he fishes, he hunts, he rides ATVs, he cuts firewood for people, trims trees for people, does carpenter and plumbing work for people and has a great time. All the while he is "disabled" and unable to work and collects a disability check every month.

There are lots of people out there who should be working but aren't, and we are paying for it.
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Re: Unfit for Work: The startling rise of disability in America

Post by SHMIV »

@Kreutz: Oh yeah, this is kinda in your line of work, ain't it? I suspect that you've got all kinds of insider knowledge that would make our heads explode, lol.

@M1A4ME: I know a guy, too. HIS "disability" is mental. Basically, he popped otc energy pills and drank Red Bull all day, to stay awake, because he drank beer and smoked pot all night. After a few days of no sleep, plus the chemical intake, for some reason he kinda flipped out. Thought the CIA was out to get him. Thought his brothers and mother was in on it. Probably thought he was giving birth to unicorns.

Anyway, he doesn't even do side work. He collects foodstamp money, plus gets a free apartment, PLUS gets cash. He uses the cash to buy beer and DirecTv. DirecTv comes with porn channels. Basically, we pay him to get drunk and wrestle the one-eyed-wonder-weasel.

Oh yeah, and this guy votes. Betcha can't figure out who he's been voting for...

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Re: Unfit for Work: The startling rise of disability in America

Post by TacticalMom »

I know some really disabled people, people who need the help. Some of them are denied help and that is just sad.

I just get annoyed when I see some one who looks like they should be able to work, and can work.

My mother is considered 100% disabled from the Army. She has Lupus, she still worked. She worked as a RN and then as a Japanese American Translator. I have great respect for those that do have real problems, I don't have it for those that cheat the system.

On the other hand I have extended family members that draw WIC, Food Stamps, and other government help. That both parents don't work, and what they do work is under the table. I think that is horrible.
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Re: Unfit for Work: The startling rise of disability in America

Post by dorminWS »

Hell, the disability mill is about the only growth industry out here since Obama shut down the coal industry.

We've got households out here where no one has held a job for 3 generations and all 3 (sometimes 4 generations in the same household, if a granddaughter has a daddybaby) are on disability. They have a term for it - "on the draw". The mental disability benefits are widely referred to out here as "crazy checks". I guess that's meant to refer to the payee, but if you ask me it also refers to the payor. A few years back, a so-called "Workforce Developement" agency did a job fair at a certain high school, and surveyed the juniors and seniors as to what their career plan was/what they wanted to do with their lives. They got numerous responses of "get on the draw", "get a crazy check", etc. The way it works is, you get on the draw, get on welfare, get food stamps, grow a lirttle pot, sell off some of your government-supplied nerve/pain/depression medication, do a little farming for vegetables, steal whatever you can steal that doesn't involve any work, drive around and work the flea markets, and you're livin' large (by their standards) and not striking a tap at a damned snake!

And there is a community of both doctors AND lawyers out here that make a respectable living by (in my opinion, at least) encouraging and aiding and abetting the looting of the disability system.

Y'all better watch out; now you've got both me AND the Rev all wound up.
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Re: Unfit for Work: The startling rise of disability in America

Post by TacticalMom »

I am no politician, or economist. I am just a humble worker bee, so I guess it makes sense that I cannot wrap my head around what to do to fix this existing dependency problem we as a nation have.

The only thing that comes to mind is a full overhaul. If I (like the guvment) had a problem that was not working properly and I was bleeding money. My next logical step would be to stop it dead in its tracks. Cut it all off. Then work on re-evaluating each and every situation. (Those people like the quadrapeligic, and people who needed assistance all the time are high priority. Those people that we found were chopping wood, working under the table, and just collecting checks would not be eligible ever again.) I know that is an astronomical amount of work. However, how else do you stop it all.

Also astronomical amount of work, could mean more jobs, and job requirements.

Anyone else think of a way to solve this problem? Also all states that are actively moving people to disability just to get them off their dole, should be fined.

DorminWS and Rev, for what it is worth I am all riled up as well.

Also rereading what I wrote. I could be misconstrued as being all uncaring. I care, bu something has got to give. How do you fix something so big and corrupt, and horrible and not hurt the innocent? I guess maybe I am a cynical uncaring B&*ch. :packin:
"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves."
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