Well, the proportion of people on disability is certainly increasing as the linked article demonstrates. My anecdotal data all indicates that some of the increa

Well, the proportion of people on disability is certainly increasing as the linked article demonstrates. My anecdotal data all indicates that some of the increase is due to bogus disability claims. The SSC article also makes this claim. It's not an issue I have any particular interest in, so I haven't looked too hard for alternative explanations but given the lack of readily available alternative explanations (anecdotal or not) for the rise in people on disability I think we can say the probability is high that a non-negligible proportion of those on disability do not meet at least the spirit of the criteria for disability benefits. Most of the patient populations my relatives are referring to are poor, inner-city minorities, who the average HN reader is unlikely to encounter in day-to-day life, so it's entirely possible for the average HN reader to only meet legitimately disabled people while still having a sizable fraction of people on disability collecting disability for bogus reasons. By the way, I think it's socially undesirable for people who are not really disabled to go on disability, but for many of them it is a rational response to their circumstances.