How to Fix Poverty: Write Every Family a Basic Income Check

[Janelle2002 3,865]

Seems you're advocating electing a president that has actual managerial experience, rather than someone who can give a good speech. Interesting. I find myself agreeing with you more and more lately.

I fell out of my chair. Unbelievable. This is the first time in VJ history!!!

Where there's VJ, there is hope.

That's your campaign slogan.

[unsmiley 111]

Lawyers desperations doesn't mean people are actually taking the bait. Show me where they are taking the bait and you got me. A commercial on tv means nothing.

There are numerous articles and cases documenting the widespread fraud involved in the SSDI program. It is one of my pet peeves, and needs a dramatic scaling back if not outright repeal. Some references/links are below.

It isn't easy. I have a cousin who has been trying for 10 years. She has all kinds of arthritis, bone diseases, can barely write, they will not give her disability benefits. She can't even drive anymore.

Depends on who you get. Odds overall are about 50% benefits will be approved, which in my opinion, is ridiculously high. One judge approved 1280 out of the 1284 cases he heard! That judge should be tarred, feathered, and then shot. Link to this infuriating article entitled

Disability-Claim Judge Has Trouble Saying 'No' Near-Perfect Approval Record; Social-Security Program Strained

http://www.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748704681904576319163605918524

We have a winner.

I can't believe I am agreeing with Mr. Big Dog either. The government loves this program because it hides the true unemployment rate. Those on this undeserved handout are not counted as unemployed. It is stealth welfare.

Other links to the widespread abuse: " Investigators Make More Disability Fraud Arrests" : http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303880604579404893769824188

President Floppy Ears has overseen a growth in this program of 5.9 million recipients from the time of his election through September 2012. In addition, one out of 14 workers is on this absurd dole as discussed in the article below:

Fraud And Disability Equal A Multibillion Dollar Black Hole For Taxpayers: http://www.forbes.com/sites/richardfinger/2013/01/14/fraud-and-disability-equal-a-multibillion-dollar-balck-hole-for-taxpayers/

Edited December 17, 2014 by unsmiley

[Póg mo 1,749]

There are numerous articles and cases documenting the widespread fraud involved in the SSDI program. It is one of my pet peeves, and needs a dramatic scaling back if not outright repeal. Some references/links are below.

In all due respect, I don't have any faith in anything Forbes or the WSJ say on the matter.

From http://mediamatters.org/research/2013/06/28/right-wing-media-miss-the-facts-on-disability-f/194669

Despite sensational media reports, the average ALJ approval rate for 2011 was 58 percent, down from 63% in 2009 and from 72.3% in 1994. In 2011, one ALJ had an approval rate as low as 12.7 percent. Furthermore, more than three-quarters of all decisions favoring the disability claimant are made by state agencies before ever reaching an ALJ. In all, ALJ decisions comprise less than 25 percent of all SSDI awards. [National Organization of Social Security Claimants' Representatives, accessed 6/28/13]

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

Yeah!

[Karee 4,190]

In all due respect, I don't have any faith in anything Forbes or the WSJ say on the matter.

From http://mediamatters.org/research/2013/06/28/right-wing-media-miss-the-facts-on-disability-f/194669

Despite sensational media reports, the average ALJ approval rate for 2011 was 58 percent, down from 63% in 2009 and from 72.3% in 1994. In 2011, one ALJ had an approval rate as low as 12.7 percent. Furthermore, more than three-quarters of all decisions favoring the disability claimant are made by state agencies before ever reaching an ALJ. In all, ALJ decisions comprise less than 25 percent of all SSDI awards. [National Organization of Social Security Claimants' Representatives, accessed 6/28/13]

So are you saying that claims didn't more than double between 2000 and 2010?

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

So are you saying that claims didn't more than double between 2000 and 2010?

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=3818

Several important factors have swelled the number of disabled workers substantially during the last few decades:

• Baby boomers have aged into their high-disability years. Aging takes a toll on many workers' bodies and minds long before retirement age. People are roughly twice as likely to be disabled at age 50 as at age 40, and twice as likely to be disabled at age 60 as at age 50. (See Figure 2.) As the baby boomers -- the huge cohort of people born between 1946 and 1964 -- have grown older, the number of disability cases has risen substantially.
• More women have qualified for disability benefits. In general, workers with severe impairments can get disability benefits only if they have worked for at least one-fourth of their adult life and for five of the last ten years. Until women joined the workforce in significantly greater numbers in the 1970s and 1980s, relatively few women met those tests; as recently as 1990, male disabled workers outnumbered women by nearly 2 to 1. Now that more women have worked long enough to qualify for disability benefits, the ratio has fallen to 1.1 to 1. This has been a large factor behind the increase in the number of DI beneficiaries.
• Social Security's full retirement age rose from 65 to 66. When disabled workers reach full retirement age, they begin receiving Social Security retirement benefits rather than disability benefits. The increase in the retirement age has delayed that conversion for many workers. In December 2011, more than 400,000 people between 65 and 66 --nearly 5 percent of all DI beneficiaries -- collected disabled-worker benefits; under the rules in place a decade ago, they would have been receiving retirement benefits instead. [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 8/9/12, emphasis original]

That makes a lot of sense. It's not particularly sensational - sorry - but it makes sense. Changing demographics will cause changes on many fronts.

[Karee 4,190]

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=3818

That makes a lot of sense. It's not particularly sensational - sorry - but it makes sense. Changing demographics will cause changes on many fronts.

That doesn't come anywhere close to explaining a more than 100% increase. Nice try though. You must be getting your math lessons from JohnR's English teacher.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

That doesn't come anywhere close to explaining a more than 100% increase. Nice try though. You must be getting your math lessons from JohnR's English teacher.

Because you say so? I see. That's convincing. Awesome analysis you presented to refute it.

ETA: Had you bothered to read the link, you would have found that nobody claims that these factors account for all of the increase. But they do account for most of it.

Edited December 17, 2014 by Mr. Big Dog

[Póg mo 1,749]

In all due respect, I don't have any faith in anything Forbes or the WSJ say on the matter.

From http://mediamatters.org/research/2013/06/28/right-wing-media-miss-the-facts-on-disability-f/194669

Despite sensational media reports, the average ALJ approval rate for 2011 was 58 percent, down from 63% in 2009 and from 72.3% in 1994. In 2011, one ALJ had an approval rate as low as 12.7 percent. Furthermore, more than three-quarters of all decisions favoring the disability claimant are made by state agencies before ever reaching an ALJ. In all, ALJ decisions comprise less than 25 percent of all SSDI awards. [National Organization of Social Security Claimants' Representatives, accessed 6/28/13]

If you think it's so easy to get on disability, then go explain to all the people on the comments section of this link, who had to wait years before getting approval.

[Karee 4,190]

If you think it's so easy to get on disability, then go explain to all the people on the comments section of this link, who had to wait years before getting approval.

Dude I have more family members than I can count collecting disability, and the only thing wrong with the majority of them is that they're allergic to working. So take the sob story somewhere else.

[lostinblue 1,989]

Dude I have more family members than I can count collecting disability, and the only thing wrong with the majority of them is that they're allergic to working. So take the sob story somewhere else.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Yeah, that's right lost. Give a thumbs up for the lazy family. Awesome!

[Karee 4,190]

Yeah, that's right lost. Give a thumbs up for the lazy family. Awesome!

Yeah the folks in my extended family are the only ones taking advangtage.

Keep living in your liberal help the "less fortunate" world by giving people handouts. Keep them poor so they'll continue to be dependent on govt. and keep pulling that D lever. I think people are wising up to that scam, hence the need to refresh the Democrat voter rolls with illegal immigrants from south of the border.

[decocker 7,198]

Yeah the folks in my extended family are the only ones taking advangtage.

Keep living in your liberal help the "less fortunate" world by giving people handouts. Keep them poor so they'll continue to be dependent on govt. and keep pulling that D lever. I think people are wising up to that scam, hence the need to refresh the Democrat voter rolls with illegal immigrants from south of the border.

if the only people i know on disability are actually disabled, does that mean i live in an alternate universe?

[OnMyWayID 1,489]

In the United States—as in all of the world’s wealthier nations—ending poverty is not a matter of resources. Many economists, including Timothy Smeeding of the University of Wisconsin (and former director of the Institute for Research on Poverty) have argued that every developed nation has the financial wherewithal to eradicate poverty. In large part this is because post-industrial productivity has reached the point where to suggest a deficit in resources is laughably disingenuous. And despite the occasional political grandstanding against welfare, there is no policy, ideology or political party that is on the books as pro-starvation, pro-homelessness, pro-death or anti-dignity.

Yet, poverty continues to exist. In the U.S., for example, almost 15 percent of citizens (and almost 20 percent of children) live in poverty. Of those, slightly under 2 percent live on less than $2 per person per day.

Thanks for sharing the story.. I think this is a good idea. We need to get past the "what is fair" question and realize that the whole infrastructure created for providing the various forms of welfare and who qualifies is more wasteful than just providing the bare minimum for everyone regardless of income (and it has to be everyone because we don't want to waste resources determining who qualifies beyond say being in the country legally).