
Disabled, or just desperate? Rural Americans turn to disability as jobs dry up - 127001brewer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/local/2017/03/30/disabled-or-just-desperate/
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celias
Here's the 6 part NPR series Unfit For Work from 2013
[http://apps.npr.org/unfit-for-work/](http://apps.npr.org/unfit-for-work/)

with an accompanying This American Life broadcast
[http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/490/t...](http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/490/trends-with-benefits) and

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127001brewer
Is disability a form of "basic income"?

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orionblastar
You pay a FICA tax that goes into your social security fund. If you go on
disability based on how much FICA you paid it determines how much disability
you get.

I went on disability in 2003 and I have physical and mental illnesses that are
well documented. I was discriminated at by coworkers and management when I had
jobs and in a Post911 world they do medical background checks to screen out
the mentally ill.

People who are contractors get paid with a 1099 and if they ho on disability
they aren't paid much.

Disability I'd not be able to get by if not for my wife being a nurse. I don't
know why people think that people on disability are rich, we are not, we are
poor. I'd earn more money if I got a full time job at a retail store or baking
pizzas or going back into programming if they'd allow me. But society rejects
us and forces us to go homeless or go on disability.

It is not basic income; however, but it is a good start.

I have problems with social skills and speaking communicating, etc. I can't
hide my illness.

When they talk about disability they think of the blibd or the deaf or someone
in a wheelchair but never the mentally ill. I've never been arrested, never
did drugs, I am not violent, and against these mentally ill people that do
public shootings and end up in the news media to give them the attention they
want.

Disability is hard to get off it, your doctor has to clear you for work first
and then vocational rehabilitation tries to find you a job. You might be
making sandwiches or something because companies don't want to hire the
mentally ill for programming jobs.

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alistproducer2
This one of many articles existing the abuse of the disability system. Where's
the call to cut the waste, fraud, and abuse?

~~~
LorenPechtel
The problem is companies will hire the most able-bodied first. Marginal people
like the ones in this article will be the last to be hired--and that means in
a less than robust economy they simply won't be hired, period.

As far as I'm concerned our definition of disability is wrong. If your
maladies mean nobody is willing to hire you, you're disabled regardless of
whether there's a job that you could be at least marginally productive at.

