
Unfit for Work: The startling rise of disability in America - Tomte
http://apps.npr.org/unfit-for-work/
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matt_the_bass
I'm torn on this subject. I truly believe in a social network. But it drives
me nuts to see people milking it.

My neighbor in one side of me is in a wheelchair from an injury from an
altercation years ago. His previous profession would easily accommodate a
wheelchair. But he's an asshole and does not participate in society. So he's
on disabiluty.

My neighbor in the other side had a sit down sales job before having a stroke
at a young age. Now he has to walk with a cane and says he can't concentrate
and is tired. So he can't work. But he's fit enough to go out nearly every
night until 3am partying and can concentrate enough to play poker 5 nights a
week. He's an asshole too.

Then I see the poor single mom who's busting her butt to make ends meet and
going to school but she never gets a paid sick day.

This seems like an allocation disconnect problem in the system to me.

~~~
astura
Disclaimer: I only scanned the article, I'm coming back to it when I get more
time. I'm largely just responding to this comment right now.

Yeah... I'm very torn too...

My dad and all his six brothers and sisters, save for one, are on disability,
and have been for years. Their disability, without exception, is laziness and
being self entitled brats. I'm not saying they don't have medical issues, they
do, but don't we all at some point? I have zero sympathy for such people. I
mean, I'm pretty sickly as I mentioned in another post, I could milk it and
almost certainly get disability, but I am employed. I am employed because I
want to be self sufficient. I've been on short term disability in the past, I
worked to get myself back into the workforce. It's just like any other setback
or road block in life, you work through it and move on. If I were lazy I'd say
"I can't" while on short term disability and eventually apply for long term
disability or social security like my shitty family.

My aunt's and uncles can do more than me half the time. My dad is ridiculous
when he talks about how difficult it was to work, he basically says, "oh God,
it's so difficult.. they want me to show up and do work, and I don't want to.
I'm traumatized! Pity me!"

Same as TFA, when I worked at BK we would schedule extra people on the first
of the month and it would usually be unusually busy. Why? That's when social
security checks come in.

I am extremely sympathetic though to the people who truly have problems
working... I feel like we, as a society, should take care of such people. But
separating them from the lazy malingerers seems almost impossible sometimes.

I also believe anyone who got injured in the military absolutely deserves
disability.

Or maybe my personal biases are coming through from having such a shitty and
abusive family. Maybe I'm truly not fit to decide who "deserves" disability?

I guess this post turned out to be somewhat of a rant...

~~~
toomuchtodo
I am extremely interested in hearing how these people you mention are on
disability. My mother spent four years trying to get disability, and suffered
from a degenerative spinal issue that culminated in spinal reconstructive
surgery a year before she died this July at 59 (I will be forever grateful for
the ACA affording her some level of care in her last years).

Without being rude, when someone says someone else is on disability and
doesn’t believe they meet the qualifications, I don’t believe them. I have
seen what is required to justify your disability (40% of all disability claims
are denied).

Every social safety net will have freeloaders on the system. This is preferred
over people in desperate need not getting the support they require.

This is how we are measured as a civilization, how we treat the weakest
members (with apologies to Ghandi).

~~~
astura
Extreme malingering.

If you work hard enough you'll eventually get it, _especially_ if you have a
lawyer. It took all of them years and appeals to get approved. If you are
persistent enough you'll get approved eventually.

Eventually....

It's like that episode of Seinfeld where George worked to stay on
unemployment. It was basically their life goal was to become "disabled." If
you dedicate your life to being disabled... It will happen if it's literally
your job... My fucking uncle worked for, I don't know how many years to become
disabled.... If he put half that effort into being employed....

It doesn't surprise me that people who are terminal aren't able to benefit...
The system is rigged.

Some of them, like my aunt, take injuries and claim they've never recovered
from them. Even though they have. Who's going to argue with that? How can you
prove anything?

My dad is surprisingly "not disabled" when he feels like it.

Once you get into "disabled" territory, you become untouchable...

You can not believe me all you want,I do not give two shits. I know what I
have experienced, I don't personally care if you believe me, I don't care. I
know for a fact my dad and his siblings are shithead. That I will know for
life and I can't avoid.

~~~
Tycho
What sort of appeals - are those prepared by lawyers?

------
pkaye
The way things are going for me, I might end up in this situation. I've been
dealing with kidney failure the past few years. Came all unnoticed due to
damage done by an autoimmune disease.

I used to have a greater engineering career back then running multiple
successful projects, leading teams, doing technical work. I still continue to
work of course but now have to focus on other priorities. Most people at work
don't know it but I'm on PD dialysis every day of the week. 8 hours during
sleep and 4 hours in the evening. The first thing I do when I return form
work. Most people wouldn't even realize it except maybe a little "flab" in the
belly due to pumping 8L of dialysis fluid through it every night.

These days I have to focus on maintaining health insurance through job
stability expecially with the GOP trying to kill the ACA. The most important
factor to a job right now is flexibility and travel time. I can't really
travel for business trips these days due to treatment schedules.

I've been fairly lucky up to now because I know my employers for a long time
and they have been flexible but I wonder how I will manage to get an
accommodating job in the future. I have a friend you recently joined Google. I
don't think I could ever join a high profile company in my present situation.
The job pressure and treatment schedules don't mesh well.

~~~
hkmurakami
Knowing Google's culture, if you have a serious medical condition like this,
you can absolutely be moved to a lower pressure, longer project timeline sort
of team. Hell I have a friend who got moved to a lower pressure team at JP
Morgan IBD of all places, when she got ill.

If they get rid of you because you "can't be in a team with time pressure",
then they're opening themselves up to a massive lawsuit, which they will never
risk.

And obviously asking you about your medical condition during the interview
process is illegal. I would encourage you to look at Google if it's a place
you'd be interested in joining. Get the offer. Sign the contract. Start work.
Get moved.

------
nickthemagicman
It's mostly dead end jobs for the bottom 60% of America. Employers don't take
care of employees and treat them like expendable machines.

There's no upside to entering the working world so why not just declare
disability.

~~~
gumby
I don’t know why this was voted down. It sound cynical and potentially
judgmental, but I did t read it that way.

There are fewer and fewer jobs available for people without much education,
and in the US at least also very little practical assistance. In such a
situation going onto disability is a _rational_ decision.

There are jerks who milk the system, sure. But I think the situation described
by the article is one where there is no social safety net for the unlucky.

The US seems to have a punitive view of social assistance. This is an
important reason why we should use robots to replace middle class jobs ASAP.
If the only jobs replaced are physical labor, ced people will be left to rot.
If the jobs replaced are lawyers and oncologists, governments will act.

~~~
nickthemagicman
Love where your head's at. I feel like we still have this perspective carried
over from the 60s when companies took care of and trained their employees and
bettered their career paths, that a job is great But modern jobs are
exploitative and brutal.

We deff need automation as fast as possible.

------
spondycoder
Throwaway for obvious reasons. I'm not in the US but I can relate. I am 27 and
was recently diagnosed with spondyloarthritis, an autoimmune disease which
attacks your articulations. It has changed my pain scale tenfold or worse. I
have a variat where I suffer everyday and in most articulations, some days are
worse.

It feels unfair because everything was fine for me before and I'm young. I
hide it : I'm a founder of a (somewhat) rising startup and have to just deal
with it. Of course some days you can't hide it.

My empathy has decreased towards people suffering. Sometimes I feel like I
suffer more than most sufferers. I know it's not true and pain is very
personal and comes in many ways. I just feel this and I try to fight those
feelings.

But when I here "pain normies" complain all the time about little back pains
and tiny health issues I need to take a break ;)

I might write a piece about this soon. I need it. The only upside is that I'm
laser focused on my work & mission now, and I work very hard but it's very
hard to suffer all the time.

So my point is... don't be too quick to dismiss people's pain. But don't be
too quick to acknowledge it either. Some people hide pain very well. You can't
see 90% of disabilities.

------
Madmallard
Maybe people will finally start coming to realize that poor quality food,
worsening soil and water systems, increasing chemical exposures in daily life,
having kids at a later age, etc are causing problems you cant fix and at
younger ages than ever. Society is culling itself.

