Found 'Em - Unemployed Workers Dropping Out Of Labor Force

....every month, almost 250,000 people have been applying for disability.”

In an eye-opening six-month investigation into America’s disability program, Planet Money reporter Chana Joffe-Walt uncovered a “disability industrial complex” fraught with fraud that churns out 14 million checks every month to citizens the government has deemed disabled.

“Since the economy began its slow, slow recovery in late 2009, we’ve been averaging about 150,000 jobs created per month,” said Joffe-Walt in an Public Radio International (PRI) “This American Life” interview. “In that same period every month, almost 250,000 people have been applying for disability.”

Among Joffe-Walt’s findings are the following facts:

• The federal government spends more money each year on cash payments for disabled former workers than it does on food stamps and welfare combined; America’s two largest disability programs, including health care for disabled workers, costs taxpayers $260 billion a year

• In some parts of the country, such as Hale County, Alabama, one out of every four working-age adults collects a disability check

• As of 2011, 33.8% of newly diagnosed disabled workers cited “back pain and other musculoskeletal problems” as their reason for being unable to work. In 1961, the top reason for being disabled was “heart disease, stroke”

• Disabled workers do not get counted in the unemployment figures. If they did, the numbers would be far higher

• Less than 1% of people who went on disability at the beginning of 2011 have returned to the workforce

• The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program—which covers kids and adults—has exploded. SSI is now seven times larger than it was 30 years ago.

The report suggests that the much-touted Welfare to Work policies of the 1990s that appeared to successfully move welfare recipients off the public dole may have been a mirage. States have figured out that shifting people from welfare to disability frees up substantial funds, as states have to pay the costs of welfare, but the federal government picks up the tab for disability.

“That’s a kind of ugly secret of the American labor market,” said MIT economist David Autor. “Part of the reason our unemployment rates have been low, until recently, is that a lot of people who would have trouble finding jobs are on a different program.”

Joffe-Walt says disability has “become a de facto welfare program for people without a lot of education or job skills.” The reporter notes that the disability program “wasn’t supposed to serve this purpose; it’s not a retraining program designed to get people back onto their feet.”

According to Social Security chief actuary Steve Goss, disability insurance program reserves will run out of money in 2016.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Govern...ability-Than-Food-Stamps-And-Welfare-Combined

 

Somewhere in my travels I read that SSD relaxed their rules on qualifying.( I think back in '09)

Secondly, every quarter that goes by where you aren't contributing to SS via paycheck you lose credits. Not enough credits - no disability check. Act now.

 

Like with food stamps, Obama is probably running ads for people to sign up for disability. It's not like the money is coming out of his pocket. The more people he gets on a regular government check the more supporters he and the Democraps have.

 

In California if you can get yourself diagnosed with some disability you are a made guy with an exit strategy. You cannot be fired from your job! If they convince you to leave said job you get disability! I had to work with some toxic individual for a few years. Everybody was trying to fire the guy and he was always there.

 

Some years ago my neighbor's son here in CA was on disability. Take a wild guess what his disability was.

Do you think it was a bad back?

Do you think it was a bum knee?

Nope. Neither. His disability was -------- he was a drug addict. Wanna know what else he got besides a disability check? Free methadone.

Epilogue: The guy drank himself to death, he died of meningitis. He was in his mid 40's or so.

 

Green shoots

 

I know someone also on disability. She found an attorney who told her he could get her qualified .. and he obviously got a chunk of $$ for his efforts. This woman is a (wanna-be) artist who does have a eye issue that doesn't prevent her from doing her art and photography. Yet she gets about $15K per year for this 'partial' disability. And apparently she qualified for Medicare even though she's not at that age yet. It's sad what kinds of minor issues can apparently qualify you.

 

LOL Yeah, government green shoots. The democraps are on a drive to get as many people dependent upon the government as possible.

The problem is that it's working. The end game on this is much uglier than anything happening in socialized Europe.

 

CORRECTAMUNDO!

When the government controls your health care and your monthly income check, they control your vote.

The Repubs might as well just "go to shit and let the hogs eat 'em"...

Now that the majority of the American electorate are parasites, we effectively no longer have a 2-party political system...

This will continue to be the case until we have a backlash revolution... will be bloody... and likely end with a dictatorial government.

The best I can hope for is that the festering of this process takes more years to culminate than I have left... not much of a thing to hope for.. sort of like hoping for "death by a thousand cuts" rather than "death by a hundred cuts".

 

From what I hear, much of this stuff is Agenda 21. Deindustrialization, closing power plants, huge carbon taxes. Meant to bankrupt the people and create dependency.