Giving You All You Want
This has been the trend since the end of the 1990s, when “welfare reform” was enacted by a Republican Congress and President Bill Clinton. Rather than remaining stuck in a system that pays in commodities and benefits, more and more people have been moved into a permanent welfare class defined by disabilities. Some are legitimate disabilities, of course, but as I suspected then, much of it is trumped-up nonsense. One of the biggest has been the growth among psychological disabilities, with vast numbers of people receiving benefits on the claim of ADD/ADHD. This has created whole families who receive monthly stipends, each, as individuals, and a whole cottage industry of attorneys specializing in winning these claims has come into being.
According to one Fox News report, the number has ballooned even more in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008. In fact, according to the source article in the New York Post, many people are applying for disability just as their unemployment benefits are running out. This is simply another case of people seeing the public trough, and figuring out ways to get access to it. Sure, there are certainly disabled people, but the numbers now applying for benefits as permanently disabled people defies credulity. This has become the new permanent welfare subsidy, and most of the people who now receive it are able-bodied, but claim disabled minds. If you wonder how the Obama administration is managing to bring down unemployment, this is part of the formula. As people’s claims to the Social Security administration are approved, they drop off the roles of jobless, thus rigging the numbers a bit more in favor of the Obama administration. All the while, disability claims have hit a record $200billion, as of January.
Everybody is entitled to their opinion, but I’ll gladly tell you mine: I’ve said since the early 1990s that had I been born three decades later, I’d have been diagnosed with ADD/ADHD and pumped full of Ritalin, if my parents would have been gullible enough to fall for it. Most of the kids diagnosed as such are just normal kids who need a little stern discipline, and while there will be those of you who will argue I am a Neanderthal for the suggestion, I’ve seen this up close, and I know what nonsense lies behind most of it. Now, that diagnosis is being carried over into adulthood, and adults are likewise being newly diagnosed with these dread afflictions of the psyche.
Let me tell you the truth: Most of the people thus diagnosed as adults actually suffer a different affliction, and it’s called “Needaswiftkickaritis.” In short, they’re children in the bodies of adults who are avoiding responsibility for the conditions of their lives, and passing on the duty to fund their materials needs to those of you who work. I know a person who is part of this profile, right now, not one mile away, and that’s only because he brags about it. He knows he’s scamming the system, and he’s actually proud of it. Somebody at the SSA actually challenged his claim, I believe denying it, and then he went out and found himself one of the ambulance-chasers who specializes in these matters. Bingo! He won the lottery, and now, at 26 years of age, he will spend his days being fed, clothed, and housed by you because he “won’t hit a lick at a snake,” as goes the central Texas colloquialism.
This is one more instance where a big government program has been taken from its early intended purpose to something it was never intended to do, and we wonder why we’re going broke? Where I work, we’ve even had people who came in, applied, went through our extensive training program, and then as they should commence work, announced that they would not be working for us after all, because their claims of disability have been approved. Ladies and gentlemen, we cannot permit this sort of thing to go on. When we reformed welfare in 1996, we failed to reform other programs to close loopholes that were even then being habitually abused. Many of those who went off the welfare rolls in the intervening period have merely found another teat on the giant sow of government at which to nurse. It’s time we wean some of these piglets, as they’re now milking the sow to death, and us with her.
I agree with you. I have also been diagnosed with ADD and where you get things in reverse…I forgot the name. But I just kept trucking. I am blonde so when people wonder what planet I came from I said I am "blonde.". I gained a reputation for being blonde, on tv and etc. I have had so much fun with it and it covered up a problem that and is frustrating.
Our country is on the edge of the abyss, no matter what the reason. I do hope we survive.
dyslexia…
Yep! They are licking the sow to death. Good analogy Mark LOL
Just last week, I read a book called The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson. In this book, available at many public libraries, Ronson explains just how the manual for mental disorders has morphed from 64 pages to over 400 pages, thereby including all sorts of "disabilities." Hell, one of them is Interpersonal Disorder (or some such name), which one "has" if one has ever had an argument with one's spouse. I kid you not!
ADD, ADHD, Borderline Personality Disorder, and many more "disorders" found their way into this manual because psychologists and psychiatrists knew that listing so many disorders would be a boon to those professions.
Now are faced with the unsustainable position that people are getting SSDI checks, in many cases some partial benefits, because some pencil pusher has decided that there are all these disorders. The whole thing is a scam and puts in jeopardy those with real disabilities (my husband, in a hospital bed in the living room with the bedside potty for the past 2.5 years).
"Most" is the key word.
In my 40 years of teaching, I've seen only three severe cases of ADD. I'm serious. Only three! Two of those cases involved brain damage (narrow birth canal, forceps delivery), and one of those cases involved an incomplete abortion (Mother tried to induce an abortion but failed to do so). BTW, none of these individuals is on SSDI. They have managed to pull their lives together and were never medicated, either. They did have to be homeschooled because they could not learn without constant one-on-one instruction.
You have hit the nail on the head !!!!!! I never forget the day Congress classified alcoholism and drug addiction a disease back in the 90's. Some one gets cancer or parkinsons have no choice but a person who wakes up in the a.m. and drinks a beer or smokes a joint makes a conscious decision. Now I have to pay for their reckless behavior and the a.d.h.d is a ruze to stay home watch Dr.Oz. No wonder Obama might win due to the minons on the govt teet and the sheepoles are turning this great country into Greece
Lawyers are a large part of perpetuating this problem and another one – settlement pay. I see a whole lot more "disability diagnosis" coming from legally prescribed drugs that they later find to cause certain "side-effects". The number and frequency of commercials on TV trying to find people "suffering" from these so-called side-effects or even worse, relatives that may have someone who died from it, are shocking. If you think the huge payouts from these settlements (most of it going to attorneys) aren't affecting all of our insurance rates, think again. And, of course, many of these "settlements" also turn into government-sponsored disability pay for life AFTER the huge settlement. Either the FDA is really screwing up by allowing pharmaceutical companies to put these drugs on the market without sufficient testing or we have a really screwed up judicial system that awards these kind of judgements without any regard for individual responsibility. Ummm – both?! The ones I really, really do not understand is why any woman would ever take a drug while pregnant or why any doctor would allow it. Even back in the 80's I was basically told that anything I took was a risk. And I know these drugs are labeled that way – I've seen the pharmacy printouts. I've about decided that almost any problem in this country boils down to a lack of individual responsibility.
I am an adult with ADD and have spent years studying this so-called "disability." First off, it is nothing more than a different way of learning. The fact is that most adults with ADD are really quite smart. I consider it a blessing and not a curse. No adult with ADD should be receiving any sort of benefits for this and no child should be given drugs (except in very rare cases.) I differ with some of the "experts" in the field on this point.
As to the disability thingy – I'm wondering how these folks are all getting disability so easily. In most states it's a fairly long and arduous process, usually involving attorneys as most folks are turned down on their initial request. They also need to have a doctor who is backing them up with medical records. I'm not saying it can't be done, because we know it can. My brothers 4th wife gets SSI because she's "nervous" or some dang thing and still works a part time job. Nice gig, if you can get it.
This country has gone from a prominence of rugged individualism to a growing influx of collective wussies. More and more people are running away from the discomfort and efforts of hard work and individual responsibility. If you don't feel good, mentally or physically, practically no matter what it is there is a disease or disability that your condition falls under, and a pill to alleviate it. Most of it is nonsense. Granted there are legitimate diseases and mental disorders, but the majority of the recently created ones are not. If you're not right in the head, think, and you shall be set free. Face reality, see the truth for what it is; absolute and immutable. Accept the consequences of your actions, the consequences of others' which you cannot change, and choose a positive action to the things you can change or influence. It's all about conscious choice and the willingness to accept the pain of mistakes and failures along the way in the risky journey of achieving success. Year by year, day by day, moment by moment, you choose how you feel; choose well.
This country has gone from a prominance of rugged individualism to a growing influx of collective wussies. More and more people are running away from the discomfort and efforts of hard work and individual responsibility. If you don't feel good, mentally or physically, practically no matter what it is there is a disease or disability that your condition falls under, and a pill to alleviate it. Most of it is nonsense. Granted there are ligitimate diseases and mental disorders, but the majority of the recently created ones are not. If you're not right in the head, think, and you shall be set free. Face reality, see the truth for what it is; absolute and immutable. Accept the consequences of your actions, the consequences of others' which you cannot change, and choose a positive action to the things you can change or influence. It's all about conscious choice and the willingness accept the pain of mistakes and failures along the way in the risky journey of achieving success. Year by year, day by day, moment by moment, you choose how you feel; choose well.
Interesting post, Mark. In the news this morning, was a report about the huge numbers of people filing for disability after their unemployment benefits run out. While 3 or 4 years without a job can definitely impact one's mental outlook, the big story is the desperation, and anger, of those who have resorted to this measure.
This exposes the flat out lie of the phony 8.3% unemployment statistic touted by this administratoin. Over 11 million people have simply dropped out of the workforce. Fewer people are working, so the unemp numbers are BS. The real number of unemployed is judged by expert economists to be at a low of 16% to a high of at least 20%. In some areas, and some demographics, the numbers are much worse.
A totally ingnored segment of workers today are those who don't give up. Those who take lower-paying positions, often working two or even three jobs to stay afloat. These people are the backbone and the strength of America. They, and small businesses that struggle to keep going in the face of a hostile economic environment, fostered by an arrogant and incompetent administration, are the heroes of this time in our history.
If you are among the minority of people who still have a good job, or a nice government or entitlement position, think hard about voting to continue the lies of this spendthrift administration. You are not stupid. You know our economy is not better. At some point, it will be your job on the line. How hard are you willing to work to pay for those unable or unwilling to work? How hard are you willing to work to bail out failing companies of political cronies? How hard are you willing to work to pay for another vacation for Michelle?
A couple of examples of what you cite (true stories): My son is an EMT. The ambulance service for which he works serves a two-county rural area. He says that without fail, at the first of every month they experience a high volume of calls for patients to be taken to the hospital which has a psych ward, and also boasts a large, state funded outpatient facility. The reason: they aren't experiencing any sort of crisis, but the patients state they just need to be seen to continue getting benefits.
An employee was relating an experience with a child when she worked at a state funded child care facility. Apparently this child was a holy terror and no one wanted to deal with him even when he had taken his ADD medication. One day, the person relating this experience stated that she was told she was in charge of him for the day. Now, this person knew this child personally. She waited until all the other children and staff had left the room. She got down on the child's level, looked him right in the eye and told him she knew he understood how to behave, she expected him to behave, and if he didn't, she would take him outside and paddle his behind. The child was a perfect angel all day. Now, I'm sure that if anyone in government or the ACLU had caught wind of this, she would be in jail for child endangerment right now. The sad truth is both children and adults push the boundaries just as far as they can.
The bottom line is, if these people who are obviously intelligent enough to figure out how to work the system would apply the same kind of energy and dedication to making a really contribution to society, what they could accomplish would be limitless.
Jeannie, I also work as a Paramedic for 27 yrs and everytime I enter one of these drug and alcohol rehab centers they are always on Medicare no matter how old or how young they are !!! Also, you are correct about it was a Republican congress that enacted this change. This happens when Republicans try to appease Dems and find common ground but in actuality they are falling for the Dems social enginnering and enslaving the sheepeoples. Tell your son for me to be safe and God Bless. Being an EMT or Paramedic is a noble field and he desreves graditude.
Finally someone else who sees what I do. I have come across many people who get their "crazy checks" and collect a livable check. People who will supplement their incomes by working off the books, but insist they cannot work b/c they are disabled. 27y/o women who have no problems walking to the store, running after 3 kids, carrying heavy loads of laundry, yet are "disabled", collect food stamps, medicaid and section 8 housing. It's a mockery