The Rise of Disability in America
March 24, 2013
Click here to read about people deemed unfit to work.
People are moving from welfare to disability. The nature of work is changing in the United States.
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CJS-360 Diversity Issues 
I think that there are many people who are on a lot of people who are on disability because they do not want to work or because they are not making the effort to find a job that can help support their family. There are some people who should be on disability because they do have a disability but some people should not be on disability if they are in good health and is able to work. I think that to be able to determine who is qualified to be on disability, the definition of disability should be more direct or clear. If they can find a clear definition for disability, I think that it will be harder for people to be on disability.
I personally believe that a lot of people take advantage of disabilty benefits. I have heard numerous stories of people claiming their disable when in reality they just dont want to work and want to recieve benefits. I think more complex test should be done to determine if a person is disable. I think this would help decrease the rise in disabilty.
When it comes to being Disabled and living off the government, is it really important to try to cheat the way of living with money that freely falls into your hands every month? Is it necessary for people in general to lie about their pains? I see people out there who are blind one eye and don’t even have disability money dropping in their hands every month. I know a lot of people out there who are just sitting there and say their backs hurt and they need disability money. I don’t understand these two different concepts, shouldn’t it be the other way around?
After reading this article it’s clear that there needs to be one clear definition of “disability” that doctors would follow. It is out of control, according to this article. While there are many people with legitimate reasons for being on disability, there are even more who shouldn’t be. While I understand that an average family cannot live (at least live well) on a job at McDonalds, and life would be difficult, disability benefits should not be the place to turn to, although I understand why people do it. I am just afraid that over time this will take money away from those that are truly disabled and really need the support. What was most disturbing was that two-thirds of kids are on the program! What? That is crazy. They have been diagnosed with mental or intellectual problems. Again, some are real, but that is a scary number, and a dangerous label to put on kids. It is hard to imagine so many doctors diagnosing kids so quickly with mental and intellectual problems. I would be really, really careful before labeling a kid with a “disability”.
To me there seems to be a wide range on what a doctor considers to be a disability. It’s too broad, easily determined and the criteria to determine the level of disability should be stiffer. I have heard of people that were seriously injured and because of that their ability to perform many tasks are almost impossible. But they have had to go through months or even years to be approved for disability therefore they had to continue to work in some capacity. Although there are several people that have disabilities that prevent them working, there are also people that are hurt but could be employed. Some people after being injured could easily continue to work but may have to make adjustments at their job due to the injury. People could pursue other employment if it isn’t possible to return to their original job. I think that for whatever reason many people are comfortable with living off of the government and have no motivation to do anything different.
I can see this becoming a touchy subject in the future. Just like welfare, there are people who are not necessarily using it because of valid reasons. Whether laziness, lack of opportunity or something else, there can be an array of reasons someone needs government assistance. I think that there are great programs out there for people who need them. When dolled out in the appropriate manner, they can be sustaining programs that help people get on their feet. There should not be the blanket statement made that everyone on disability is just on there because of a dumb reason that should not be a disability. But no matter how we look at it, the definition of disability, while broad, can never really be defined in a neat little packaged. The important thing to remember is that there is a difference between a disability and an illness. While a mental illness could be seen as a disability, diabetes and heart disease should not. They are illnesses, and often curable with a few steps and medication. They do not prevent people from working and are conditions that people can live with. While this could also be said for someone with a high functioning level of down syndrome or autism, those are the situations in which the extra disability checks help people survive. We can work as hard as possible to secure jobs and homes for people with disabilities, but sometimes, it just is not possible. They need the assistance to live and survives. They help parents supporting children in debilitating circumstances support their children. That is what they should be used for. Gut check people: we have become lazy. We have run out of excuses so we continue to ruin perfectly good programs for those who really need them. It is a case of the lazies, and it will be interesting to see what happens to this sort of government assistance in the future.
I think it is obvious to say that disability, like any other government assistance program in the US is being abused. This “dark figure” of disability payouts needs to be further examined by our government who is signing the checks every month. Without better regulation, taxpayer dollars are being spent on a group of unknown size that is taking advantage of the system. Reform is clearly the best option here. Many states are requiring drug tests for welfare. The argument of whether or not this practice is cost-effective is still up in the air among many people. I think drug tests, and physical exams by a licensed physician are no-brainers when it comes to disability assistance. Our country needs to take care of those individuals who cannot make a living on their own due to legitimate disability. Reversely, we need to “thin the herd” of disability recipients and only allow people to collect when there is no other option. I think a lot of the disability abuse comes from cultural changes over the last few decades. More and more Americans would rather “hop into the wagon” than go to work and pull it. Due to ineffective filters on disability applications, this is an easy way out of work. If our country wants to cut down on disability abuse, we will have to reward our hard workers with better wages and benefits to make working more appealing, and handle citizens who abuse or attempt to abuse government assistance as criminals stealing from the taxpayers.
I agree that disability checks alike many government assistance programs may be getting abused. Whether or not it’s because people are lazy and don’t want to work or do have a disability I think the real issue is because of the rise of people getting on disability people who actually are disabled might not be getting the help they really need. Sometimes it can even be life or death with the disability assistance. I think it’s important to establish a clear definition or standard of what it means to be able to be on disability assistance.
There are so many different feelings I have when talking about disabled workers. Do we know that they are truly disabled or don’t we? How can we improve this and actually find out if they deserve the disabled check. This relates back to food stamps as well, do we know that they need the food stamps or are we just giving them to them. One time I went into a house and the person was on food stamps but they also have a 50 inch tv. That to me is ridiculous!
It is sad to see such a needed program be so widely abused. Unfortunately, all programs that are so needed have the potential for abuse. I agree that there needs to be some reform as to what the definition of what classifies as a disability, but there needs to be more done to prevent people from wanting to be on disability.
Lazy or not, people are people and if the only two options you have are claiming your $13K per year on disability or the $15K working minimum wage at some crappy place you hate, who wouldn’t take the free money. What is lacking is not opportunity, but the opportunity for advancement. Years ago you could go to work for a company, get some training to do your job, maybe get advanced training as the years went by, and possibly even advance and make more money. For a lot of people today, that type of employment is not possible. People no longer have loyalty to a company or organization–and those that do are not always rewarded. People move from job to job, place to place in order to survive. Many even refer to their employment as a “job” rather than a “career”
It is this systematic inability for employment to meet people’s basic needs for survival (or what they perceive as basic needs–after all, the government has labeled a cell phone as needed in today’s society) that is the real problem.
As with all programs, there will be some that exploit them, but what would really help is to reduce the need for the program to begin with. Eliminating programs like disability assistance and welfare is impossible, if we take steps to reduce the need, we will all be better off as a society (just don’t tax me any higher).