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What does disability mean to you and who qualifies?

What does disability mean and who should get it?

  • It means unmanagable pain and those people should get it

    Votes: 4 14.8%

  • It means one might get a chance to retire early and play

    Votes: 2 7.4%

  • It is another way to fleece taxpayers and no one should get it

    Votes: 1 3.7%

  • who cares, it is unmanagable

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • who cares, it is insignificant expenditure for the US

    Votes: 1 3.7%

  • It should be completely overhauled, re-written, and inspected for cheaters

    Votes: 23 85.2%
  • Total voters
    27
  • Poll closed .
Rocketman said:
Which was the main point of this thread and if you took the time to read the poll and votes you would have seen that instead of all that nonsense
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You're dodging my point. Your analogy is stupid
 
johndylan1 said:
Actually while I agree with your sentiment, horse riding is used as a therapeutic approach for many disabilities. Our neighbors actually are a retired couple that provide this service for mentally and physically disabled kids.
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totally different scenario
 
Risky Thicket said:
Someone with Meniere's does not fit the "disabled' mold for the uniformed. Almost everyone here critical of disability accommodation holds the opinion that a person must have an obvious physical condition to be disabled. Of course they are terribly misinformed but it seems Americans need to see the physical manifestation of a disability before they can feel any empathy. And if they can see the physical manifestation they immediately understand and know all of the functional limitations. :roll:

A person with Meniere's looks "normal". No sympathy for you! Meniere's is characterized by a triad of symptoms: progressive and fluctuating hearing loss, tinitus and bouts of vertigo that can range from mild to violent. "Yeah, but you heard me fine 20 minutes ago." "Why are you laying on the floor in your office? Are you sure you aren't joking? You were talking and laughing at lunch."

According to Dapper Andy you aren't disabled and would should therefore with the appropriate education be qualified to be a surgeon, a steel worker, an electrician or a sonar operator.
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Thankfully my case is relatively minor with the help of medication, though it had got kind of bad at a point prior to getting it professionally diagnosed or treated. Unless the hearing loss that I experience at times starts spreading to both ears, or my vertigo attacks go back to the level/frequency they were pre-medication, I doubt I'd ever actually attempt to note it as any kind of "official" disability with regards to employment, etc.

Thankfully, every boss I've had since having it diagnosed has been amazingly understanding of the issue even if they don't all fully understand it. I think it helps that when I start to have an attack, or am having a consistent minor one, it's rather OBVIOUS to them that there's something out of the norm going on with me.
 
Risky Thicket said:
People with disabilities suddenly become unemployed when the economy tanks.
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So do people without disabilities.

In addition there are other factors that haven't been mentioned. The largest single age demographic in America is Boomers. Boomers began to cross the threshold of age related disability at almost the exact same time as the economic downturn. Boomers are a huge demographic and good or bad they have impacted and influenced every stage of life they have encountered largely because there are so many Boomers. Boomers were making the relatively larger salaries and had the larger pensions and had more disabilities than younger workers. Factor all that in. There is your big difference.
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If it's swelling with an aging boomer population, that's one thing, but if it spikes in conjunction with an economic downturn, it signifies either people are using SSDI as a permanent unemployment program, or that we're defining disability according to ability to find and secure a job, rather than the physical and mental ability to perform job tasks.

"I'm having a hard time finding a job, so I'm going to argue that I'm incapable of working."

On the bright side, at least the unemployment rate goes down when they exit the "actively seeking work" pool! Great news for the economy!
 
Zyphlin said:
Not everyone whose disabled has their legs amputated and are in a wheel chair. Is there fraud? Absolutely. Without question there is. But telling people off and giving them a piece of your mind and harassing them because someone THINKS they are being fraudulent doesn't do anything to "fix" the system...but it does likely lead to many people who are legitimately handicapped having to suffer from harassment and vitriol by ignorant bafoons who don't have 1/10th of the proper knowledge, expertise, or standing to question their condition.
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Quoted for truth. And what can happen when these people are confronted by an unqualified person, is that they can become less likely to venture out for fear of harassment. So their quality of life is even more greatly affected. No one should have to justify their condition to people who have no right to know about it in the first place.
 
Risky Thicket said:
What statute? Put it out here so that we might all have your wisdom.

You are saying then that blind people are not disabled? How about someone with Menieré's Disease? Is someone with multiple chemical sensitivity disease disabled? Talk to us about people who have cancer or progressive diseases and tell us which ones should and which ones should not include public accommodations. Explain to us how all disabilities are constant in their limitations and never vary. Tell us how if a person with a disability is going to have a bad day, they know it before they go to the store. Explain to me how the world is just as accessible for people with disabilities and why we have soooo many people in positions of power and authority who are disabled?
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Tom Coburn: Go read the statute. If there's any job in the economy you can perform, you are not eligible for disability. That's pretty clear. So, where'd all those disabled people come from?

Disability, USA - CBS News
 
Rocketman said:
Tom Coburn: Go read the statute. If there's any job in the economy you can perform, you are not eligible for disability. That's pretty clear. So, where'd all those disabled people come from?

Disability, USA - CBS News
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So you don't actually know what the statute says, you're just going off a third parties statement about it on a news show?

Well, that seems like factual law.....
 
Zyphlin said:
So you don't actually know what the statute says, you're just going off a third parties statement about it on a news show?

Well, that seems like factual law.....
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It is funny how when I linked to the requirements in one state, he just ignored it...
 
Rocketman said:
Tom Coburn: Go read the statute. If there's any job in the economy you can perform, you are not eligible for disability. That's pretty clear. So, where'd all those disabled people come from?

Disability, USA - CBS News
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Unfortunately Coburn doesn't know his hole from an ass in the ground when he makes that statement. What statutue says that? Coburn doesn't know. Because he is a senator and he was on TV his statement is taken as gospel. In fact, he is wrong.
 
Zyphlin said:
So you don't actually know what the statute says, you're just going off a third parties statement about it on a news show?

Well, that seems like factual law.....
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SO you have read every statute to every law we have on our books?:roll:
 
Risky Thicket said:
Unfortunately Coburn doesn't know his hole from an ass in the ground when he makes that statement. What statutue says that? Coburn doesn't know. Because he is a senator and he was on TV his statement is taken as gospel. In fact, he is wrong.
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According to you? I will take a senator's word before an average political board poster's.
 
Redress said:
It is funny how when I linked to the requirements in one state, he just ignored it...
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Because it was off topic to the thread, but you knew that
 
Rocketman said:
SO you have read every statute to every law we have on our books?:roll:
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Not at all. But I don't make claims of what a Statute is or says if I don't actually know the statute myself or can provide it if requested.
 
Zyphlin said:
Not at all. But I don't make claims of what a Statute is or says if I don't actually know the statute myself or can provide it if requested.
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Unfortunately I have a life which involves work, family time and hobbies, I don't live in cubicle reading statutes all day. I will watch your posts in the future to see if you can provide something written for anything you post.
 
APACHERAT said:
A thread on combat PTSD would be a good thread considering how many vets there are on the PD from the Vietnam War to Afghanistan. I have my own theories that many who been there and done that and who are in the military or VA medical fields concur with.

Look at the Marines, sailors and soldiers who fought in the Pacific theater during WW ll, nothing comparable to Korea, Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan and why so little combat PTSD ? Or why Marines who served in Vietnam have less PTSD claims than soldiers. And what's with POG's who served in Iraq or Afghanistan filing combat PTSD claims ?

I came across an article recently from an interview of the Army's Chief of Staff and the Commandant of the Marine Corps during the early 70's. It was about the first social engineering/dumbing down of Army basic training. Eliminating a few things like midnight inspections and a couple of more. Then they turned to the Commandant and asked if the Marine Corps going to follow suit and dumb down Marine Corps recruit training and he said no. Then he went in to why. Pretty interesting, I need to dig it up and start a new thread.
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There are so many individuals that came home from WWII and displayed PTSD symptoms. One of the most heartbreaking books I've ever read (Betton Boys) was a unit from Betton Virginia that landed in Normandy and was ripped to pieces. The one's that survived fell into alcoholism and committed suicide. PTSD existed in WWII...it just wasn't diagnosed. The most decorated enlisted soldier in US history suffered from PTSD and became an advocate for better treatment of vets with PTSD.

There is no "dumbing down" of US Army basic training. I'm sorry but the US army is better than it's ever been. It's a professional army with higher level of IQ and other measurements than it's ever had in it's history. There's no doubt Vietnam Era basic was harder but a lot Vietnam vets went from civilian to war.
 
Rocketman said:
Tom Coburn: Go read the statute. If there's any job in the economy you can perform, you are not eligible for disability. That's pretty clear. So, where'd all those disabled people come from?

Disability, USA - CBS News
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Demographics Explain Nearly All Growth in Social Security Disability Insurance

* The Social Security disability programs have grown significantly since they were signed into law, as well as in recent years. The growth was expected and projected as far back as 1994.

* According to Social Security's Chief Actuary, the growth of SSDI (from 1980 to 2010) is mostly the result of several factors: substantial growth in the U.S. population; the baby boomers aging into their high-disability years; women entering the workforce in large numbers in the 1970s and 1980s so that more are now "insured" for SSDI based on their own prior contributions; and the increase int he Social Security retirement age so that disabled workers continue to receive SSDI benefits for longer before converting to retirement benefits. (Footnote: Testimony of Stephen Goss, Chief Actuary, Social Security Administration, before the House Ways and Means Committee (March 2013), http://waysandmeans.house.gov/uploadedfiles/goss_testimony.pdf)

* Many experts including Social Securty's Chief Actuary caution against overstating the role that the recent economic downturn has played in contributing to the growth in SSDI. The Chief Actuary estimates that the recession accounts for just five percent of the program's growth. (Footnote: See id; see also Ruffing, supra note 5; see also Kathy Ruffing, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Disability Benefits are Hard to Get-Even in Recessions, Sept. 3, 2013, Off the Charts Blog | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities | Disability Benefits Are Hard to Get

*Demographic factors-such as disproportionately older population-also explain geographic variation in rates of receipt of Social Security disability benefits. (Footnote: See, e.g. Kathy Ruffing, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, The State of Disability, March 26, 2013, Off the Charts Blog | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities | The State of Disability, see also Kathy Ruffing, Not So Hale and Hearty: Explaining Disability Rates in One Alabama County, April 15, 2013, Off the Charts Blog | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities | Not So Hale and Hearty: Explaining Disability Rates in One Alabama County.
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Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities, "Just the Facts of Social Security's Disability Programs", http://www.c-c-d.org/fichiers/CCD-Just_the_Facts_on_SS_Disability-Programs-Final-10-2-13-(2).pdf
 
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Rocketman said:
According to you? I will take a senator's word before an average political board poster's.
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And I trust Disability Rights organizations and the Social Security Administration over Coburn.
 
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