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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

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 9y ago
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...
- thex10 9y ago
  I'm with you both; my mom has the same unspecified affliction. I'd never seen her work, and she definitely seems incapable of it in the lazy/brat sense, at least back when we were younger. It did make me a little torn, because I do think we should take care of people who need it, but efforts to determine/enforce 'neediness' usually just seem to make it more difficult for people to acquire help. However, that 'help' (in this case SSI) is such a miniscule bit of money anyway that I really can't be bothered with fussing over whether they 'deserve' it or not. Let whoever wants it take it, IMO.
  - astura 9y ago
    I think "miniscule bit of money" is only looking at the individual case but on a macro scale it's incredible siginficant and "ruins" things... I think you're, at the heart of it, really arguing for basic income which,I admit would (probably) be more "fair" than what we have now. Honestly, I don't think I can argue against BI too much. I think what disgusts me most is that while I was a child/teen my dad collected SSDI in my name, as a dependent, while not doing jack shit to care for me in any sense of the word. It was an extra $100 a month or something. For him to claim he needs that money to "support" me is a gross injustice of the world and makes me physically ill to think about. The SSA should at least make sure that my dad was contributing $100 a month to my care - he absolutely was not. He would have kicked me out and made me sleep on the street if my mom didn't prevent it. Again, I think I'm probably projecting rather than adding to the conversation as an "average" person....
    - newfoundglory 9y ago
      No, the SSA shouldn't be doing anything of the sort. That would be a ludicrous expansion of their role and a waste of money. If you want to be mad at the government that your childhood was shit then at least complain about child welfare departments or something more relevant than you not thinking your dad spent his ssdi check directly on you.
  - newfoundglory 9y ago
    Not only does it make it more difficult for people who are supposed to benefit, it is literally spending money that should be helping people on preventing them from receiving that help.

astura 9y ago

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...

thex10 9y ago
I'm with you both; my mom has the same unspecified affliction. I'd never seen her work, and she definitely seems incapable of it in the lazy/brat sense, at least back when we were younger. It did make me a little torn, because I do think we should take care of people who need it, but efforts to determine/enforce 'neediness' usually just seem to make it more difficult for people to acquire help. However, that 'help' (in this case SSI) is such a miniscule bit of money anyway that I really can't be bothered with fussing over whether they 'deserve' it or not. Let whoever wants it take it, IMO.
- astura 9y ago
  I think "miniscule bit of money" is only looking at the individual case but on a macro scale it's incredible siginficant and "ruins" things... I think you're, at the heart of it, really arguing for basic income which,I admit would (probably) be more "fair" than what we have now. Honestly, I don't think I can argue against BI too much. I think what disgusts me most is that while I was a child/teen my dad collected SSDI in my name, as a dependent, while not doing jack shit to care for me in any sense of the word. It was an extra $100 a month or something. For him to claim he needs that money to "support" me is a gross injustice of the world and makes me physically ill to think about. The SSA should at least make sure that my dad was contributing $100 a month to my care - he absolutely was not. He would have kicked me out and made me sleep on the street if my mom didn't prevent it. Again, I think I'm probably projecting rather than adding to the conversation as an "average" person....
  - newfoundglory 9y ago
    No, the SSA shouldn't be doing anything of the sort. That would be a ludicrous expansion of their role and a waste of money. If you want to be mad at the government that your childhood was shit then at least complain about child welfare departments or something more relevant than you not thinking your dad spent his ssdi check directly on you.
- newfoundglory 9y ago
  Not only does it make it more difficult for people who are supposed to benefit, it is literally spending money that should be helping people on preventing them from receiving that help.