SS disability=The new welfare. (insurance, money, government, states)

[Ringo1]

Originally Posted by ChrisFromChicago

If you want to allow disability (i'm all for just canning the program). . .it should be re-thought of as what it is. . .a Welfare/education program

Every person on it should have a action plan and timeline (and face reduce benefits) to remove them. The idea that "well he only has high school, he has back pain, disability for life" is crazy.

If you have back pain, than you get a computer and educational classes so that you can start on training to get you a sit down job.


I bet most disability is just a type of welfare with people with excuses. We need to solve the gap between ability and job, and move them off.

Well. That is just not always possible. What if you are a quadriplegic with limited mental capacity? No amount of training is going to help that.

Granted, at some point in extreme cases, SSI will transition to Medicare but there is NO 'one size fits all'. And I'm definitely in favor of tightening the reins but it's not a cut and dried kind of thing.

[d4g4m]

Thousands of pages have been added to OSHA rules and regulations over the years, yet more people are becoming disabled. I don't want to work anymore. Oh! my aching back.

[freemkt]

Originally Posted by d4g4m

Thousands of pages have been added to OSHA rules and regulations over the years, yet more people are becoming disabled. I don't want to work anymore. Oh! my aching back.

How does an aching back prevent you from working in an office?

[ellemint]

Originally Posted by freemkt

How does an aching back prevent you from working in an office?

I depends on the extent and nature of the back problem. Sitting is actually pretty hard on the back. In some cases, maybe an employer could accommodate a back problem with what is called a "standing desk" that allows a person to stand or perch on a stool and work on a high desk. It's just few employers that I know of will do anything to accommodate severe problems, even in terms of giving someone a computer set-up that has the proper ergonomics.

[jimj]

One thing people might want to consider. Since about 1999 companies went on a serious profit margin hunt. They started trimming,cutting and not adding employees forcing the remaining staff to do all of their work plus the work of the missing employees.
I remember hearing over and over again "production is up" which was kind of interesting considering staffing was trending down. Even today production levels stay roughly the same but the companies have to cut to the bone to maintain acceptable profit margins. Gone were anything resembling a 40 hour week, gone was anything that didn't either make $$ right now or have a huge ROI. 12-14 + hour days were common then on the phone or computer at home for a couple hours and weekends? Not if you had any kind of project or anything left over that couldn't get done during the week.

The point I'm trying to make is humans can only take so much before they start to break down and I think that point was reached a few years ago.
I'm not saying there's not fraud, that'd be ridiculous. What I am saying is part of the rise in claims could well be related to 1 person having to do what once was the job of 6.

Just a thought.

[MJJersey]

SSI is actually pretty hard to get. I know people with advanced HIV disease who can't get SSI. Many of the Administrative Law Judges who administer SSI are former military personnel. As a result, they are more sympathetic to the military vets. Because we have become a nation of constant warfare, we have many, many disabled vets. I think this is the primary reason for the rise in SSI claims. If conservatives don't like all of the people getting on SSI then they need to stop supporting nonsense wars.

[ellemint]

Originally Posted by jimj

One thing people might want to consider. Since about 1999 companies went on a serious profit margin hunt. They started trimming,cutting and not adding employees forcing the remaining staff to do all of their work plus the work of the missing employees.
I remember hearing over and over again "production is up" which was kind of interesting considering staffing was trending down. Even today production levels stay roughly the same but the companies have to cut to the bone to maintain acceptable profit margins. Gone were anything resembling a 40 hour week, gone was anything that didn't either make $$ right now or have a huge ROI. 12-14 + hour days were common then on the phone or computer at home for a couple hours and weekends? Not if you had any kind of project or anything left over that couldn't get done during the week.

The point I'm trying to make is humans can only take so much before they start to break down and I think that point was reached a few years ago.
I'm not saying there's not fraud, that'd be ridiculous. What I am saying is part of the rise in claims could well be related to 1 person having to do what once was the job of 6.

Just a thought.

I agree. Fewer employees>>> increased productivity. Someone's working harder. And I do not attribute that to improvements in technology. People can only work so hard until their bodies simply start breaking down.

[malamute]

Originally Posted by MJJersey

SSI is actually pretty hard to get. I know people with advanced HIV disease who can't get SSI. Many of the Administrative Law Judges who administer SSI are former military personnel. As a result, they are more sympathetic to the military vets. Because we have become a nation of constant warfare, we have many, many disabled vets. I think this is the primary reason for the rise in SSI claims. If conservatives don't like all of the people getting on SSI then they need to stop supporting nonsense wars.

There are far too many people on SSI for anyone but the very gullible to believe it's difficult to get. You can't seriously believe that a much higher percent of people today are on SSI than 40 years ago because true disability rates have really risen. "ADHD", "Work anxiety" are a couple of diagnoses that can get you SSI.

[Ghostrider275452]

Originally Posted by ellemint

Ghostrider, if you had read your own link to the npr article, you would have seen that the issue of increasing numbers of Americans on disability is a lot more nuanced than you think.

Huh? I read the article, did you?

[SyraBrian]

The percentage of Californians on disabilty is quite low.

I guess California didn't get the memo about getting their folks off state programs and letting the feds do the heavy lifting.