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The startling rise of disability in America
- Thread starter Banjo
- Start date
Quote from oldtime:
Humpy my friend, all these "schemes" are nothing more than wealth redistribution. They take money from you and give it to me, in hopes that will increase economic activity. (or more accurately, they don't have a clue how to create wealth and if you have it they think they should get it.)
.........
Years ago, I wondered why we didn't count the total number of welfare recipients in Canada. You have the regular ones, the doctors, the nurses, the post office mail carriers, the politicians, the large companies creating jobs, etc. etc. etc. The numbers would astound us. If we were to dead stop government grants, handouts, support, incentives etc. some day, our society would collapse in minutes.
The only true shortage are those who feel they should contribute to society. They are outnumbered by the ones in line for handouts (or the 30 other names used).
Quote from Humpy:
Over here we have something called an allotment. It is a small patch of ground that a city dweller can grow veg or flowers etc. on. The cost is minimal. It is a great theuropeutic occupation and one gets to meet others. I expect you got something similiar in your area ?
Over hear we have lots of stuff to put on those allotments. Politicians produce it by the yard and one must be careful not to step in too much of it.
Quote from nutmeg:
Though hardly isolated, the LIRR scandal is an obvious black-and-white case of criminality. The real problem resides in a grayer area.
In 1960, when vastly more Americans were involved in physical labor of some kind, 0.65 percent of workforce participants between the ages of 18 and 64 were receiving Social Security disability insurance payments. Fifty years later, in a much healthier America, that number has grown nearly nine-fold to 5.6 percent.
In 1960, 134 Americans were working for every officially recognized disabled worker. Five decades later that ratio fell to roughly 16 to 1.
Some say these numbers can be explained by the entry of women into the workforce, the aging of baby boomers and the short-term spike in need that came with the recession. [/B]
Why the hell would they say that...? There are several factors... The rise in productivity and the new demands of labor... To be a worker these days you need to be pretty close to an athlete to get the job done. Employers are doing a lot more with a lot less. The other reason is the rise in service workers who just push paper around or talk for a living who are employed but not really workers. There's a lot less people doing hard labor like auto workers and construction these days and the service sectors are growing.
Most of the people complaining about injured workers are mostly paper pushing fucks who talk for a living.
Quote from nutmeg:No doubt those are significant factors. But not nearly so significant as to explain why the number of people on disability has been doubling every 15 years (while the average age of recipients has gone down) or why such a huge proportion of claim injuries canât be corroborated by a doctor.
Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute and the Harvard School of Public Health notes in his recent book âA Nation of Takers: Americaâs Entitlement Epidemicâ that 29 percent of the 8.6 million Americans who received Social Security disability benefits at the end of 2011 cited injuries involving the âmusculoskeletal system and the connective tissue.â Fifteen percent claimed âmood disorders.â
Itâs almost impossible, Eberstadt writes, âfor a medical professional to disprove a patientâs claim that he or she is suffering from sad feelings or back pain.â And thatâs if a doctor wants to disprove the claim. [/B]
That's all bullshit made up by Eberstadt... Clinical depression is a disease that has a clear diagnosis... You can disprove it if someone is faking it but I don't buy the idea that so many are on disability because of "mood" problems.
Quote from nutmeg:In an illuminating and predictably controversial exposé for âThis American Life,â NPRâs âPlanet Moneyâ team tried to figure out why, since 2009, nearly 250,000 people have been applying for disability every month (while weâve averaged only 150,000 new jobs every month).
The answers fall on both sides of the gray middle. One factor has to do with what correspondent Chana Joffe-Walt calls the âVast Disability Industrial Complex.â These are the lawyers who fight to fatten the rolls of disability recipients. These lawyers get a cut of every winning claimantâs âback pay.â The more clients, the bigger the take. Thatâs why they run ads on TV shouting, âDisabled? Get the money you deserve!â
Then there are the doctors. Joffe-Walt profiles one rural Alabama doctor who signs off on disabilities for pretty much anyone lacking a good education on the assumption their employment prospects are grim.
That points to the even bigger parts of the story. As the nature of the economy changes, disability programs are sometimes taking the place of welfare for those who feel locked out of the workforce â and state governments are loving it. States pay for welfare, the feds pay for disabilities.
There are those who are quick to argue that this is all bogus, thereâs nothing amiss with the disability system that greater funding and a better economy wonât fix. Maybe theyâre right. One way to find out would be to ask every recipient to get a thorough examination, just as they did in Britain. Maybe the results here in the United States would be interesting too.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinio...ity_is_the_new_welfare_eIopPX2jsOGxU3kYcqcq8J [/B]
I'll say this... fraud is obviously wrong ... They should investigate and seriously punish fraudulent behavior.
On the other side... Paper pushing fucks who have never worked for a living really need to STFU about injured workers... It's absolutely disgusting that you greedy fucks would pick on people who actually work. Let me give you a hint... You office working pussies aren't that relevant to us despite your best efforts to pretend like you are. You don't produce anything... you just leech off of labor and complain.
Quote from StarDust9182:
Years ago, I wondered why we didn't count the total number of welfare recipients in Canada. You have the regular ones, the doctors, the nurses, the post office mail carriers, the politicians, the large companies creating jobs, etc. etc. etc. The numbers would astound us. If we were to dead stop government grants, handouts, support, incentives etc. some day, our society would collapse in minutes.
The only true shortage are those who feel they should contribute to society. They are outnumbered by the ones in line for handouts (or the 30 other names used).
You think doctors, nurses and the post office mail carriers are welfare recipients...?
Dude... Get your fucking head checked... You sound like a retard.
Quote from StarDust9182:
If we were to dead stop government grants, handouts, support, incentives etc. some day, our society would collapse in minutes.
Exactly right...which is another perpetual stimulus/bailout, etc, etc...consumer spending becomes "resilient" to the peaks and troughs of the economy if you have ever greater numbers directly supported by the state.
Quote from denner:
Exactly right...which is another perpetual stimulus/bailout, etc, etc...consumer spending becomes "resilient" to the peaks and troughs of the economy if you have ever greater numbers directly supported by the state.
Not true...
Look at North Korea... They're all supported by the state... Who's spending there...???
China is another less extreme example... All their big spenders are the rich not the ones who still depend on the state. But in reality the rich are the state and I'm sure they complain about people not willing to work because they have a broken neck just like American paper pushers too...
Consumer spending fluctuates in either case based on demand, opportunity cost and obviously affordability. If you want to blame it on something blame it on QE and rising wages (in cases where they're rising) not on disability payments or people who work in essential services like the postal workers.