I know less about economics than I do about fashion, which is to say, nothing. But I can usually spot a bamboozle in the hatching phase. Here are two items on the economy that appeared within the last week. First up from a Reuters business piece:
Disability rolls may be holding economy back
Those receiving benefits now account for 5.6 percent of working age populationSince the recession began, the share of Americans actively looking for work, known as the labor participation rate, has fallen to 63.6 percent from 66 percent in 2007.
Some people give up looking for work temporarily, but the size of the decline has perplexed economists and disability is clearly a factor.
JP Morgan estimates it accounts for half a percentage point of the drop. With jobs scarce, it causes little drag on growth.
But Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial, said over time, disability will rob roughly $250 billion — or 1.6 percent — from total output each year once the economy returns to full employment, probably within the next five to seven years. This will also widen the budget deficit.
ROB, he says. Okay, here’s the other item:
Study: CEO Pay Increased 127 Times Faster Than Worker Pay Over Last 30 Years
From 1978 to 2011, CEO compensation increased more than 725 percent, a rise substantially greater than stock market growth and the painfully slow 5.7 percent growth in worker compensation over the same period.
In 1978, CEOs took home 26.5 times more than the average worker. They now make roughly 206 times more than workers, EPI found. The pay isn’t always tied to the performance of their businesses — as ThinkProgress has noted, CEOs at companies like Bank of America often pocket huge pay increases even as the company’s stock price plummets and jobs are cut.
Workers’ wages aren’t tied to productivity either. Despite substantial gains in productivity since the 1970s, worker pay has remained flat. According to Labor Department data cited by the Huffington Post, inflation-adjusted wages fell 2 percent in 2011.
How to solve the problem? Getting the feed straws of those disabled layabouts out of our wallets, obviously. And more tax breaks, a greater share of political control and higher bonuses for the CEO class.
I haven’t heard a GOPer make a big show of specifically attacking disability payments yet, but it’s coming if it hasn’t already happened. The disabled will be the new strapping young t-bone buying bucks.
[X-posted at Rumproast]
TR
“Oh, look at his fancy electric scooter! What, is he too good to walk? And now he wants us to use taxpayer money to build special little ramps just so he can use them?”
From Both Sides
Isn’t the whole point of disability the fact that those people are physically incapable of participating in the workforce because of the physical harm their previous participation in the workforce inflicted on them? And it’s not as if qualifying for disability is the same as qualifying for a disabled parking sticker – there’s a lot of hoops to jump through, and it can take years for it all to get sorted out.
aimai
When you read what the vox populi have to say about disability they are as confused as ever. Half of them know–like really know–relatives who are on disability because, for example, they are severely disabled and the family couldn’t support them otherwise. These are brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts who in the old days would have been warehoused or abandoned or driven the family into penury. But they also “know” people who are “on disability” who are just blowing all that free money eating and drinking and living and they ae as watchful of those dollars as they are of everyone else’s food stamps. Its considered a mortal sin that people on disability still want to enjoy themselves with smokes, or alcohol, or transportation, or anything else. As far as a whole lot of americans if you are disabled enough to be on disability you should basically be quadriplegiac, and even then g-d forbid you should self medicate for the depression by occasionally enjoying zoning out on drugs.
aimai
MattF
Well, see, you start putting two plus two together, who knows what might happen next. When the winger economists start to badger you about the true, deeper meanings of ‘two’, ‘plus’, and ‘equals’, you know you’re on the right track.
Zandar
When austerity comes (and you can argue that local/state government cuts mean it’s already here) it will be cloaked in Very Serious Centrists telling us that we’re all guilty of sucking the government teat in some fashion with our insistence on “roads” and “schools” and “public safety” and “common defense” and that it’s time for the 99% to share the burden of higher taxes and to count on far, far fewer “benefits we can no longer afford” like, well, like everything I mentioned above.
Not the job creators, of course. Just the rest of us.
NCSteve
Actually, the next strapping young t-bone buying bucks is strapping young t-bone buying bucks in hoodies. People on disability are the next Cadillac-driving welfare queens.
rlrr
@Zandar:
While reading a history of the late Roman Empire, I was struck by how when money was needed to fund infrastructure and legions, often the rich a powerful rigged the system so they didn’t share the increased tax burden
Culture of Truth
Don’t you mean The “disabled” will be the new strapping young t-bone buying bucks.
Villago Delenda Est
We need tumbrels. Let’s start with Rmoney and his spawn.
Oh, and don’t forget the Villagers. Most talking heads will look much better rolling around in a wicker basket than they do on Meet the Press.
Roger Moore
Yeah, they’re competing with the feed straws of the CEOs. How unfair is that?
Woodrowfan
I am really, really trying not to hate these people…
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Well, if the disabled would just volunteer to become Soylant Green, they could be put to use.
Seriously, though, did they miss the note from God that said that the love of money is the root of all evil? You don’t measure the success of a society by the sum of all its dollars made.
Roger Moore
@From Both Sides:
Disability isn’t necessarily work related; pretty much anything that makes you incapable of working qualifies. It could be because of non-work injury or chronic illness. For example, my previous boss wound up going on disability because she suffered from MS and it got so bad she really couldn’t do anything anymore.
c u n d gulag
@Woodrowfan:
Why?
They hate the living sh*t out of the rest of us!
And feel the need to prove that every day…
Bulworth
So, our betters are planning to return the economy to normal in about, oh, FIVE to SEVEN YEARS?! Yeah, can’t imagine why more people aren’t just willing to wait patiently until our Job Creators turn the machines back on again.
Odie Hugh Manatee
What we need is a good ol’ World War to get everyone back to work and thin out the lower ranks of society. With an enemy to distract the proles, fewer rabble at home and more work for the remainder, people will be fighting, dying and just too damned busy to come after my money!
/rich prick
butler
From the article:
So the “problem” is that people have the gall to be disabled and not kill themselves trying to continue in the workforce despite the fact that they may be, quite literally, physically unable to work. And the money they get in disability payouts also vanishes into the ether apparently, since disabled people don’t need food or shelter or fuel and thus don’t buy any of these things.
And apparently those jobs they left won’t get filled by other, non-disabled potential job seekers because… why, exactly?
Roger Moore
@Villago Delenda Est:
Presumably they’ll shut up, too, which would be an even bigger improvement than just the change in appearance.
Villago Delenda Est
@Bulworth:
When their asses are on the line (see the ending of Trading Places) the machines must be turned back on.
For others, not so much.
PurpleGirl
I have a neighbor who regularly rants about people on disability who don’t deserve it. When my unemployment ran out he asked me if I thought of going on disability. To which I responded “I’m not disabled enough and it would probably take a few years to push the system.” (Besides my real disability work-wise is my stutter and I never heard of that being considered for disability benefits.) He also hates people who get Section 8 housing aid and, again, wondered if I could get that. To which I responded, “Well, there’s been no new Section 8 money in years.” Wanted to say “thanks to idiots like you.” He is really a walking bag of resentments against anyone who has even a little bit more than he does.
ETA: He grew up in the tax-abated, non-profit housing complex we live in. He has never lived in market-driven housing and has no idea what it is like out there.
Culture of Truth
Watch out, Fox News is wall-to-wall commercials for motorized scooters.*
*I know, I know they deserve assistance, unlike everyone else
Mnemosyne
IIRC, a lot of the surge in disability claims is people 50+ who can’t find work after being laid off in the crash and need to bridge the gap between now and being able to get Social Security. In a better economy, some of the might be able to find jobs they could physically do that would cover their medical bills, but ain’t no one gonna willingly hire, say, a woman in her mid-50s with heart problems.
jibeaux
O/T, I asked JC for a thread on it but was not indulged.
I assume if you’re reading B-J and live in NC that you know about Amendment One. If you’re reading B-J and do not live in NC but know anyone there, please nag them to vote against A1 or dialogue with them about it if they are on the fence. We could be — but are not looked poised to be — the first in the nation to reject an anti-gay marriage amendment. This amendment would go further than our current statutes and would prohibit recognition of any domestic union other than marriage. If passed, it will throw partner benefits and domestic abuse law into uncertain territory. We need to pull out all the stops on this, if you have any NC stops please get in touch. Thanks for listening.
Cacti
@butler:
Someone was actually paid to write that.
Shoot me.
Forum Transmitted Disease
Who’s more to blame, the guy at the bottom scamming a few hundred bucks a month out of the system or the guy on the top scamming a few million out of the system every month?
For some reason, in America, it’s always been the 2-bit chiseler on the bottom of the pile that’s considered the problem.
beltane
@Villago Delenda Est: It really doesn’t take much to frighten these people. The reaction of the “serious people” to Francois Hollande’s victory has been delicious to say the least. You’d think he was the second coming of Robespierre the way they’re going on.
Maybe we should parachute all the serious people to Greece where they can be used as props in the upcoming street battles between the communists and the Nazis, because all their beloved austerity is good for is in fomenting extremism.
jibeaux
@PurpleGirl: The resentment of people who have 5% more than you do combined with the fierce defense of the wealth of people with 5000% more than you do is strangely common.
rikryah
@Woodrowfan:
fuck that.
hate those sociopaths.
Culture of Truth
“They may take our lives, but they’ll never take our Friedman!!!”
butler
@Cacti: I’d love to oblige, but you’d probably end up on disability and thus part of the “problem”. I just can’t have that on my conscience.
Forum Transmitted Disease
I might also point out that I don’t assume that most people on disability are robbing the system, simply because it really doesn’t pay that much.
That being said, the only person I know on permanent disability is totally gaming the system and has been deliberately doing so for almost 20 years now. She had to work harder and longer to get that classification than I did to get a college degree, so, again, I don’t assume that most recipients are doing this.
Deen
But never mind increasing work safety requirements, or making sure people have health insurance so they can get preventative care.
Culture of Truth
You just want disability
Valdivia
Republican Women for Govt in your…..
ha ha ha
ETA: obviously that is slightly OT
SatanicPanic
@Bulworth:
I suppose they won’t mind if we all hang out eating steaks and smoking cigarattes with our disability payments until then
Ben Cisco
@Woodrowfan: Me too, but I’m already up to “actively dislike.”
It’s not looking good…
Betty Cracker
@jibeaux: Jimbeaux, do you have a favored informative link on that topic? I’d be glad to toss something up on the front page. Not only would a rejection be good for gay rights, it would make Maggie Gallagher cry, so this must happen.
gene108
The Economist article isn’t a bamboozle. It’s a real problem caused by the Great Recession: The drop in labor force participation.
The drop is probably due to a few factors, though I haven’t seen anyone actually do a study on it. Part of it is the long-term unemployed have quit looking for work and the other part is the aging Baby Boomer workforce is either retiring early or not looking to work past 65.
The end result is, if and when employment picks up, if you have a drop in available workers of several million versus pre-Great Recession levels it will impact the growth of the economy, because employers will not be able to fill needed job openings.
The drop in labor participation, whether through people going on disability or retiring or anything else, is a long term issue for the nation.
RalfW
Just posted a comment on a related thread over at Brad DeLong’s place (though the comment machine may have eated it).
DeLong has a post up about a Ryan Avent piece. Avent leads with worry about disability claims.
What I want to know is, why the rising percentage of disability vs. workforce is (at least according to Chris Low’s implication) indicative of grifting, when the ratio of workers to retirees getting narrower and narrower is just demographics.
Its like this: as the labor force ages and retires, there are fewer workers per SSI retiree. We all know this, its why concern troll centrists fret bankruptcy! all the time for SSI.
OK, so if there are more retirees per worker and that trend will continue, then wouldn’t there be more disabled people per working worker too?
Am I missing something?
And yes, I know that actual disability claims are up. Again, as our workforce ages (and as our US health continues to slide towards second world standards, RW talkingpoints notwithstanding) won’t more people develop disabilities – job-related or not?
Forum Transmitted Disease
@Woodrowfan: Why? It’s no exaggeration to say that they sincerely hate you. And me.
Woodrowfan
@Ben Cisco:
I am at “dislike with the force of a 1,000 suns” so far.
One of my cousins, a bigoted jerk, has been on disability for a couple decades because of a forklift accident he suffered in his 20s. Haven’t spoken to him in years. The last time I did so he ranted about all the “n****rs” on welfare.” He’s the biggest shoot-yourself-in-the-foot fuckup I ever met in my life and he’s bitching about other people getting help. Gad/.
karen
I’m lucky enough to be able to work remotely with my RA but if I lost this job I’d have to go on disability. A lot of the people with RA are forced to go on disability because of mobility and fatigue issues. The people on the comments who talk about how disability is scammed and how people who get it don’t deserve it will be the first ones screaming about how much THEY deserve if G-d forbid, they become disabled. I’ve reached a point where I hate these people so much that I want them to lose their jobs and have to make a choice between feeding their family and or sending a sick family member to the hospital. I want them to suffer the way they don’t care if others suffer. It sickens me that i’ve gotten to this level.
Origuy
My housemate is on disability (SSI) because of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a genetic disorder that affects the connective tissue, plus damage from surgery that was done before they knew what was wrong with her. In California, if you are on SSI, you can’t get food stamps too.Medicare keeps getting cut back, now they don’t cover dental, except for extractions, and the EDS causes her teeth to be brittle and crack. She’s been on the waiting list for Section 8 for two years, but there have been few if any openings.
One judge at her SSI hearings thought that because she was able to get an English degree, in her 40s, that she should be able to work full-time. No one wants to hire someone who can’t get out of bed some days because of pain.
She and her adult son, who hurt his back working at Target and who also has EDS, have been living with me for several years, rent-free.
Mike in NC
They consider the disabled to be just like the unemployed: leeches and moochers.
jibeaux
@Betty Cracker: Yes! Thank you! This is the big group opposing the amendment:
http://equalitync.org/news1/amendment
RalfW
Furthermore, to get a bit wonkish here, couldn’t it be partly a function of our sometimes rather good healthcare system also managing to save more people’s lives but leaving them disabled that plays a role?
Danger, anecdote ahead, but a friend had a severe stroke at about age 34 almost 10 years ago. One imagines that had he not lived a couple miles from a major level-1 trauma ER hospital, or had it been 1982 rather than 2002, he’d probably be dead.
Instead, he’s in a hoverround, on disability, and living in a condo. He had to sell his house and get help from his parents to be able to maintain independence, and he can work but has struggled to find a job once laid off in the recession.
If you are an employer and you can choose between an aplicant who appears normal or one in a powerchair with diagnosed aphasia, who ya gonna hire? I know, A.D.A. and all that, but discrimination against the disabled, it happens, ya know?! (Yeah, shocking.)
jibeaux
Actually, this is probably more updated. I think that link is from 2011.
http://www.protectallncfamilies.org/home
Steve in DC
@Woodrowfan
I often get the feeling that people on government services are keenly aware that there is only so much money in the pot. And that it’s in their best interest to force other people away from the table to make sure they keep getting their portion.
As someone who’s job depends on government funding I know that sort of attitude goes around a lot here. Things are almost always cut, rarely expanded. So you always hope it happens in some other area and to another person. And very rarely does arguing that what you do is essential save you from it, you’ve got to make sure the spending/budget lion eats someone else, because someone is going to get eaten.
butler
@gene108: Nice problem to have: too many jobs with not enough people to fill them. Unfortunately, its not the current state of things, and its not likely to be a reality for the foreseeable future, if ever.
Until then, how about we not demonize the disabled as a drag on the economy, ok? And then when it happens, lets continue not demonizing them.
Roger Moore
@Culture of Truth:
Where would you like your intertron delivered?
Forum Transmitted Disease
@Steve in DC: Lovely. A Tea Partier concern troll whose full time “job” is blasting out GOP talking points from behind the desk at their government job.
How’s the government coffee this morning, Steve?
Linnaeus
Interesting story on Ph.D.s going on public assistance. This story is more common than you may think.
celticdragonchick
I am one of those “working aged disabled” persons. I have degenerative disc disease (which I discovered after I collapsed in the aft cargo bay of a 757 one night when my L4/L5 disc ruptured), and it took 4(literally agonizing) years before I could take my claim before a judge and get disabilty.
This last weekend, I graduated fron Guilford College with a BS in geology. My teachers had gone out of their way to accomodate me on days when I hurt so bad that I had to leave class early or couldn’t even make it in to school.
When I told my wingnut engineer neighbor I had graduated, the first thing he did was make a snide remark that maybe now I could go get a job.
Real funny.
PeakVT
@gene108: Two studies on the subject have just been published, and Mike Konczal summarizes them. The shorter of the summary is about half of the LFPR drop is due to people giving up on looking for work.
gaz
@celticdragonchick: Bury your garden hose right next to his foundation and turn the water on.
Jax6655
@Origuy:
Bless you.
Jax6655
@Origuy:
You are awesome!
celticdragonchick
@gaz:
I would, except we are in a townhouse and share the same foundation. Meh.
gaz
@Origuy:
My mother has EDS 3 and it looks like I’ve probably got it too. Suck.
PeakVT
@RalfW: That’s possible, but I think it’s more likely our patchy and terribly expensive health care system fails to heal people fully, or just lets them slip through the cracks, instead of returning them to full health and able to work.
@celticdragonchick: If you have pets, perhaps they can leave your neighbor the proper response.
gene108
@butler:
I just didn’t get any sort of hidden meaning from the Reuter’s article.
It just seems to bring to light a problem with the workforce participation rate, the causes of the drop in workforce participation and the long term consequences.
@butler:
In the short term maybe, but in the long term, there are actual problems economies run into, when you don’t have as many workers paying into the system as you did ‘x’ number of years ago.
The fear that politicians will fear monger over this is moot, in my opinion. Republicans, at the state and local level, have already booted people off of Medicaid and cut off other forms of assistance to the poor. I don’t see the Republicans at the Federal level having the clout to re-do how people qualify for SSI.
All Reuter’s article is doing is pointing out potential causes and problems by the 3%-4% drop in the labor participation rate over the last 5 years and the long term impacts.
If anything, this article should be used as a rallying cry by the Democrats to demand more stimulus and infrastructure spending to cut off long term problems the drop in labor participation could cause before those problems come to pass.
Shalimar
@Forum Transmitted Disease: Sure. Who usually gets more jail time, the Bernie Madoffs or the idiots who steal $200 from a 7-11? Rick Scott wasn’t even charged for his massive Medicare fraud.
Steve in DC
@FTD
I’m not a tea partier by any means. Just because I don’t buy everything on the Democratic party plate does not make me a tea partier. I support higher taxes and government spending. I’m socially liberal though that doesn’t impact my vote at all (I’d give up Roe V Wade in a second for higher taxes).
Also, I don’t get offended if you try and insult me, it really has no bearing on my quality of life.
I just hate liberal idiocy as much as I hate conservative idiocy. And far too many on either side think that their shit doesn’t stink. So if someone wants to start fundie bashing and hippy punching, sign me the fuck up.
gaz
@celticdragonchick: Another tip to get rid of an asshole neighbor (works in apts and townhouses)
What you need:
1) good speakers – I’ve used mackie active-actives with 8″ cones to good effect
2) a shared wall or floor.
3) some digital audio software (like FL Studio) or at least a nice WAV file with a subsonic base Frequency = <60hz so it's below human hearing. Best to use software though so you can tweak it to prevent rattles.
Whenever you are gone, before you leave put the speakers right next to your wall and blast the subsonics as loud as it will go without rattling.
You won't violate noise ordinance, cuz nobody can hear it. Prolonged exposure to this sound will make you nauseous.
It took me 3 months before my bigot downstairs neighbor moved out.
celticdragonchick
@PeakVT:
I was thinking more along the lines of giving him a couple dozen mice to keep him company. We have two young and aggressive housecats to keep any strays out of our side of the townhouse…
celticdragonchick
@gaz:
Now that is brilliant. Wow.
gaz
@celticdragonchick: I’m not a neighbor you want to upset. =)
Best of luck to you.
celticdragonchick
@Steve in DC:
Nice to know that we can count on you to sell the rest of us out.
If you want to suck the Dead David Broder Dick of False Equivalency, you can surely do it when the rest of us are not watching in dismay.
gaz
@Steve in DC: “I’d give up Roe V Wade in a second for higher taxes”
Spoken like a man of privilege.
Hope that works out for you. As for most of the rest of us, we grew the fuck up long ago.
celticdragonchick
@gaz:
Thanks :)
I’m not that worried about him. I need to start gearing up for a grad program in geology, and I have to find someone who can fit me in despite the back problems. I can do limited field work (and geology is all about field work), but I am not going to be up for 20 miles hikes around Iceland looking at Mid Ocean Ridge tholeitic basalts. :)
Jax6655
@Steve in DC:
How would you be “giving up” Steve? Is your real name Stephanie??
ETA: Cos if it’s not, then fuck you.
gaz
@celticdragonchick: Since you are going for a grad anyway I can’t help but wonder if you’ve considered staying in academia instead? A lot of geology students could probably use a good professor.
Geology + Back Problems seems to me to be a form of self-torture. Ouch!
Whatever you decide, more power to you. =)
Forum Transmitted Disease
@Steve in DC: I know what you are. I had you tagged, bagged, stuffed and mounted the first week you were here.
Not everyone here has figured it out yet, so I’m just spreading the word, my friend.
gaz
@Jax6655: cosigned.
I doubt Steve in DC would so readily give up HIS rights, not so long as there is some other person he can throw under the bus instead.
butler
@gene108:
You’re right, because it wasn’t hidden. It was pretty obvious.
And its not our current short term problem, nor do I think that its likely to be a problem at any point in the foreseeable future. If the choice is “shitty job market” or
“really great job market which may necessitate other structural changes”, I’ll take the latter.
I think I’ll just bookmark this for future reference.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Steve in DC: You’re mistaking awareness for entitlement Stevie. Most government employes think they are John Gault because they get to work for years at the same job and never worry about layoffs.
Jay C
@Origuy:
Odd you should mention EDS: my wife is a sufferer, and has been on disability for it since 1999 – the body issues and the chronic pain were just too much for her to continue working. Even with the obvious problems, we had to go through 2 years of legal hasslement with SSA to get her certified. Of course, officialdom was quite polite about it – they made a point to mention that the repeated denials were nothing personal – but the notion that disability is something freely handed out for trivial ailments is a bizarre distortion of reality. Like most right-wing tropes, of course…
At least we got a sympathetic judge who ruled instantly in favor of us upon Mrs. Jay’s sole personal appearance (in a wheelchair), and spared us any patronizing lectures. Obviously not a Republican….
gaz
@Jay C: My mother has EDS 3 and can no longer work. She’ll probably lose a foot soon.
She’s been fighting for disability for some time now – and SS just pushed her hearing back from May all the way to August, and she’s about to lose her home.
Entitled Galtian bitches can get fucked. I’ll cut a mothafucker.
Suffern ACE
I believe SSDI comes with access to Medicaid and if you have a condition that was being treated while you had a job and insurance, losing that job makes disability an option worth considering. Very few people want to be on disability, but the gap between losing a job at 50 and going without medical treatment for 15 years is rather taxing.
celticdragonchick
@gaz:
My spouse made much the same point. I really love science, but I also admit that it may not be the best fit for my physical ability…
Jay C
@gaz:
Yeah, EDS is a multi-generational suck, since it’s hereditary: and up until the late ’90s, usually poorly diagnosed. My wife, BTW, was adopted: under one of those old-time “sealed” adoptions, so she had NO health background information to rely on. I think there are (finally) tests for it nowadays: check with EDNF….
karen
Steve in DC may not have meant it that way but he’s right, it’s all about pie.
And not Cleek pie though it’s awesome!
There’s only so much pie to go around and the people who have pie right now are paranoid about losing THEIR piece of pie (tea party people) because they’ve been taught by the GOP that undeserving people are going to get THEIR pie. The GOP doesn’t talk about providing more pie or that we can all share the pie. They just make the pie smaller to make people even more scared and hateful because if people actually shared pie, then they might start to blame the people pulling the strings and once that happens and people team up instead of fighting each other then the puppeteers would be out of power. I figure that if the 99% rise up against the 1% then the 1% would stop using middlemen like Congress, The White House, The Supreme Court, etc. and just take control directly. Since that’s about as likely as snowy day in July, the 1% can rest easy.
celticdragonchick
@gaz:
Damned straight. I’ll loan you the bayonet from my Brown Bess musket. Just return it to me after you clean the blood off. I won’t ask any questions.
(edit) I have no idea why the picture is on a badly misogynistic body building site. Gaugh! I just looked closer and wish I hadn’t!
gaz
@Jay C: My next doctor visit will tell the tale, hopefully. I’m fairly certain I have it, as does at least one other blood sibling of mine. Was adopted too, and was lucky to find my biological family because the records were totally fouled. I’ve done some remedial self-tests (the thumb-wrist thing, etc), plus I can slip out of handcuffs, and put my hand through a link in a chain fence. I used to like that fact. Now I dread it.
gaz
@celticdragonchick: I owned a Nazi bayonet once. 12″ blade. I thought it was vietnam issue US until I looked it up. Now I wish I had sold it on ebay instead of giving it away. =P
jakethesnake
@Culture of Truth:
You wins the internets.
Roger Moore
@PeakVT:
They’ll have to be very well trained to do the part where they put it in a paper bag, set it on his doorstop, set it on fire, and ring the doorbell.
gaz
@karen:
That entire idea hinges on a false notion of zero-sum pie.
Zero sum thinking is responsible for more violence in the world than religion.
D. Sidhe
I’m not on disability. I’m a not-even-remotely functional schizophrenic with major hallucination issues, and I can’t leave the house long enough to grocery shop without an excruciating three-day migraine.
I *would be* on disability if my partner didn’t have a very good job. It would basically be the only way for me to afford the meds that keep me from killing myself. For a significant number of years now, I’ve basically been in legal limbo, a quasi-dependent with no actual income who lives off the good graces of my housemate, and am not always covered by domestic partnership employer-based medical insurance.
It does look like my partner may be able to hold onto this job a while, which is very good news, but if the bottom falls out of the industry, I become an even bigger burden than I am, and I either start looking at a disability check or I remove myself from my partner’s list of problems.
I am surely not the only one out there who has stayed off disability (read: government lists of crazy people) because of a decent economy. I’m also guessing I’m luckier than most, and that a lot of those people are suddenly finding themselves in a lousy economy with a choice of homelessness or finally going ahead with getting registered.
A lot of people are borderline disabled, or disabled and capable of working to some extent because there are enough jobs out there that they can find one they can do, or disabled and relying on a breadwinner. When these people find themselves getting cut off from prescription-medication help programs, or laid off, or moved to a job they can’t do, or their breadwinner loses a job, they probably do go on disability. That doesn’t make them cheats.
When the economy gets better, assuming it ever does, yes, they’re unlikely to drop the disability and go back to work, if only because disability doesn’t pay much and a lack of money for proper care will have contributed to a worsening of their disabilities.
This is another one of those things where the people who have created the problem are whining about what others are trying to do to fix or at least survive it.
I don’t actually know anyone who admits to cheating disability. Even if some are, though, I know a lot more people who really should be on it but can’t get through the process, or can’t get themselves together to try, or have cobbled together a support system of friends and family, or are making their physical problems worse by continuing to work, on and on.
gaz
@D. Sidhe: Hai! you are fondly memorialized on one of my favorite blogs, if you are who I think you are. cheers.
celticdragonchick
@gaz:
Probably from an 8mm Mauser rifle, I would guess. I tend to stick with the 18th century stuff…Heh!
The bayonet you had seems to be going for about 60 to 65 bucks on ebay. That would get you a night at Outback Steakhouse :D
(yeah yeah most women don’t get into details on WW II weapons…I never said I was normal)
Roger Moore
@celticdragonchick:
Couldn’t you go into something like Geochemistry or Geophysics, where you can spend your time in a comfortable laboratory analyzing the samples field geologists bring in for you? Somebody has to do the radiochemical dating on all those rocks.
Mnemosyne
@celticdragonchick:
I guess it’s all about your speciality, because the geologist I know does very little field work. She works for JPL and they haven’t figured out how to get her to Mars yet. :-)
gaz
@celticdragonchick: This is the one I had (though mine was in better shape)
http://www.antiqueswords.com/dynamic/products_254_1_medium.jpg
As far as not being “normal”? cheers. normal is boring. I’m a freak and proud of it!
celticdragonchick
@Roger Moore: @Mnemosyne:
I hope that something of that sort will work out where I can take advantige of it. Still, you generally have to do some arduous stuff in grad school, and my department advisors at Guilford made it clear that any recommendation letters they write will have to include some mention of my disability(although they are enthusiastic about my academic work).
Sigh.
StringonaStick
Disability is hard to get, winger tropes or not. The reason it is hard to get is because unfortunately there are people who try to game the system, so the deserving are subjected to all sorts of crap in order to limit the designation to the truly deserving (as is currently defined; obviously wingers want to tighten that into oblivion). Fortunately the attempted gamers are rarely successful but you know wingers, they’d rather see 100 deserving people suffer than have a humane system where 1 in a 100 gets away with faking it.
Warning – anecdote alert: I have a half sister who has spent her life trying to figure out how to hit her personal jackpot by getting “on” disability, despite having no disability (this was how she referred to it before she learned to shut her yap about it because it annoyed the shit out of honest people). Her last attempt was for radial nerve neuropathy (of her right forearm); a PT will tell you that’s a “trashcan” diagnosis for pain of unknown origin associated with a major forearm nerve and is diagnosed based on self-reported symptoms, so this diagnosis is ripe for attempted abuse. The funny part is she attempted to claim disability for it 3 years after working at the job she claims she got it at, but remarkably it was immediately after she became friends with someone else who was trying this same approach to obtain a disability rating (and paycheck); 8 years later neither has succeeded (thankfully).
My half-sister spends her days on Facebook, posting about ‘praying for financial good fortune’ and playing the games at Facebook for hours on end; the latter is what so amazes me; given her ‘disability’ she sure can mouse up a storm.
PS – My half-sister married a guy 7 years ago who has also been attempting to get a disability rating for a back injury he suffered on the job. His main hobby is ‘breaking’ (yuck) and riding horses, an amazing feat for a guy who claims his lower back barely lets him get out of bed; he has also had no success in gaining a disability rating. I figure that their shared interest in trying to game the disability system is what brought them together in the first place….
I just think it sucks beyond words that people who really do need help, like the EDS sufferers who have posted here, have to run this tortuous, long-term gauntlet because dirtbags like my half-sister have made it their life’s work to try to get a free ride via the same system when their only real disability is moral.
Mnemosyne
@Steve in DC:
Aww, how sweet — you’ll “give up” something you don’t use and don’t need. You sure are a self-sacrificing guy.
Brachiator
I am sure that the GOP would like to end disability payments as much as they would like to end welfare.
But part of the issue here is that some people are getting onto the disability rolls because they have not been able to find jobs, and their unemployment payments have run out. In some states, this is also a way to qualify for some health insurance programs. The issue of disability is not a drag on the economy, but another sign of the weak economy.
Corporations long ago decided that only the executives and shareholders deserved any rewards; workers not so much.
And even though Romney promises jobs galore, he doesn’t guarantee that they will pay worth a damn.
celticdragonchick
@gaz:
Very nice…and no, you should not have given it away.
Re-enactors would have loved it (it blew my mind to find out there are WW II re-enactors now. I was not surprised, however, to find out that the guys prone to portraying Waffen SS units are often cops. Friends don’t let friends play Waffen SS!)
karen
@gaz:
Are you saying my idea is wrong or that the false rationing of pie to make people fight each other instead of the people in power is wrong?
And what do you mean by a “zero sum?”
gaz
@celticdragonchick: lol!
gaz
@karen: I was saying the latter, rather than the former.
And here’s what I mean by Zero-Sum.
Summed up, There is ONLY SO MUCH TO GO AROUND.
It pervades all aspects of human history. There are even superstitious beliefs that cause some people to wish death upon beautiful kids so that theirs might be beautiful instead. (Triquis have a cultural tendency to this line of thinking, and they are far from alone).
In economics zero-sum means the money I have is the money you can’t get, rather than looking at the VERY REAL fact that the pie grows. To zero-sum thinkers the pie is always the same size. That’s simply not borne out by any rational analysis of macroeconomics.
celticdragonchick
@StringonaStick:
People like that make it real hard for the rest of us who really resent the hell out of being hurt, sick and disabled and would rather work. I will never be able to hold down a full time job because of my pain issues, and I will probably be confined to a wheelchair in the not too distant future. I really fucking resent that.
The kicker for me when my case came before a judge after 4 years was the office correspondance between AAR (an aviation repair depot in Indianapolis) and my contracotr employer in Florida that sent me to AAR on a contract. I never knew about the letters until the legal hearing, but AAR told the contract company that my pain and disability was placing a considerable burden on them and was adversely affecting the morale of other employees.
I made good faith efforts to continue working, and my lawyer was able to place letters into evidence showing that it became a liability to my employers. I simply do not understand why somebody would want to just bullshit this process so they could play computer games. I really do not grasp that kind of outlook.
Daulnay
Rob is exactly the correct word. The way our economy works now, the 1% would be getting all of that 1.6% growth. Everyone not working robs them of their ‘rightful’ gains. I am kind of surprised that a journalist has internalized this, though — journalists, even ones from Reuters, are not part of the 1%.
As for the rest of us, we’re not getting robbed, at least not by disabled people.
IrishGirl
First, I sincerely do hope they go after the disabled because many of them tend to be older and older voters. Pres. Obama has been struggling to connect with that bloc of voters and this would be an excellent inroad. Second, have the forgotten, conveniently, that the US population is aging and we have the baby boomer generation reaching a point where many will naturally become disabled to due to illness related to aging? Of course the number of disabled has gone up!
Let ’em hoist themselves on their own petard
StringonaStick
@celticdragonchick: Geology is a many-splendered thing (meaning lots of specialties); you should be able to find one that doesn’t make you into a full-time field geologist. Speaking as a former geologist, field positions are actually not that numerous, very competative, hard to get, and one of the first things to get eliminated when the financial shit hits the fan.
Take a look at hydrogeology – usually not as much field work involved; just be prepared to run computer models of groundwater flow systems until the cows come home. Also, anything related to oil and gas exploration, including the environmental side, geophysics, etc is much more likely to be more immune to financial ups and downs (Peak Oil and all that).
My MS in hydrogeology is from 1987, and I finally changed careers after 3 recessions related to the CA housing bubble had impacts at the consulting engineering firms I worked for. I also realized that I had gotten into geology to please my demanding father and that there were other things that I was more interested in. You have the huge advantage of having taken this educational route after you’d had a chance to grow up and look at what you want, not what others want you to do. With the determination you’ve already shown, you’ll be a great geologist of any flavor and you’ll be a gem* of an employee.
* Pun not intended initially, but hell, I’m leaving it in!
IrishGirl
@celticdragonchick: Unfortunately there are too many people that do fake disability but they are often caught. It’s the selfish and greedy 1% causing the rest of us grief–once again.
bemused
@Jax6655:
Awesome and hilarious.
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
It’s shared sacrifice. You sacrifice, I share in the benefits. Isn’t that how it’s supposed to work?
Roger Moore
@celticdragonchick:
I was rather surprised to discover that there’s a group of German re-enactors who dress up as Americans from my Grandfather’s division (the 90th Infantry). I guess it makes more sense than American re-enactors of the Waffen SS.
gaz
I should add that Steve in DC wins dumbest comment for the day. He’s really stepped up his game, in the face of fierce competition from Taco and Clime.
Keep fucking that chicken Steve in DC! Go man! go!
jonas
@StringonaStick: Stories about people gaming SSI are like stories about voter fraud. Yes, there are scattered instances of it, but it’s not really a big problem. (Medicare/Medicaid fraud, usually committed by rich doctors or health-care businesses, is a far, far bigger drain on tax dollars) For every cheater that gets away with it, ten other people who really could have used the help are denied by the bureaucratic hurdles you have to jump through to prove a legitimate disability.
gene108
@celticdragonchick:
I have a B.S. in Geology from NCSU, though I never got into it (to my regret…didn’t have my head screwed on straight at the time).
Anyway, as has been mentioned up thread there are plenty of options that don’t require much or any actual hard charging, marching through the brush, type of field work.
Marine Geochemistry, for example, may require field trips on a boat to collect core samples, but the rest of it would be indoor lab work.
@butler:
Knock yourself out. The usual suspects on the Right have already staked out a position to basically take us back to a pre-New Deal era government, with regards to domestic policy.
They keep throwing shit up on the wall to see what sticks and this story will just be another piece of crap in the right-wing wurlitzer. It will get replaced by something else.
I don’t think this data is any different than data that the Social Security Trust Fund will not be able to pay out full benefits in 2033 versus 2037 and whatever other bits of “future shock” people are predicting now.
The Right will pick this up and howl about for a week about the need for austerity and how other people’s suffering will make us all better and therefore we need to pass the Ryan Budget, abolish hand outs and make sure the government stays out of the Church’s business of helping the needy.
There’s nothing in the Reuter’s piece that is really ground breaking enough to change the political dynamic and shift things to the Right’s favor.
The Right has contended, since the Great Society and/or New Deal programs got passed that they cause people to be lazy and shiftless and would love to shut them down, so people can learn to struggle and succeed because struggling always leads to success (rolls eyes emoticon).
Again, the point of the drop in labor participation is that our short-term problem – high unemployment – may well turn into a long-term problem, such that any benefit from a rapid recovery will be lost because the work force would be too small, i.e. not enough earners to increase over all demand.
I’ve read/heard some scenarios that unless the problem of high unemployment is corrected soon, we may never have a robust recovery because there just won’t be enough earners to push up demand again and the economic will just be treading water.
In a nutshell, the Reuter’s article should be a call to action by the Left, so the long-term potential problems that are being caused by a reduction in the labor force and persistent high unemployment can be avoided by government spending to increase demand.
The pitch isn’t hard, “we may never have enough earners to pay down the deficit and better the economy, if we don’t get people back to work immediately, because we won’t have workers available to fill jobs, if the current bunch of discouraged workers exits the labor market for good.”
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@IrishGirl: Most of the Tea Party is on Social Security. Remember that banners “Don’t Socialize my Medicare!” ?
Personally I think you all are giving the conservatards rich and poor to much credit. It’s all about the hind brain and running on emotion with them. Liberals suck and must be attacked, disability is a liberal thing, so it must be attacked too. That’s how deep it goes with them.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
I think the wingnuts are going after disability some of their own appear to be abusing the system, like this guy. I don’t think it is irrational to think, “If this guy can create and maintain an organization, why isn’t he working?”
I do think, though, that there would be a lot fewer people on disability if we had universal healthcare. I know a guy who is HIV+. He is on disability, and I am certain he completely qualified for it at the time he got it. With access to healthcare and medication, he is very healthy. So right now, he should be honestly working (He is working under the table). However, with his age and his skill set, he is not going to find work that will cover his healthcare. That kind of thing is just stupid.
Tehanu
@Jax6655:
Took the words right out of my mouth – thanks. And I know it’s a cliche, but with “friends” like Steve, who needs enemies?
cckids
@Mnemosyne:
Not just or even mostly SS. If you get on SS disability, you automatically qualify for Medicaid. Which, inadequate as it may be, is BETTER THAN NOTHING.
Just another example of the ways in which our healh care system is fucking over the economy.
JoyfulA
@gaz: So tell me more about the self-tests and the disease? I’m “double-jointed” and at a younger age could touch my thumb to my wrist, move my tied hands from in front of me to behind me and vice versa, etc. Now my joints lack cartilage, and I have two replacement hips and a replacement knee, osteoarthritis throughout my spine and elsewhere, and pain in every joint. Should I be harassing my orthopedic surgeon to consider EDS when I see him next week about my remaining natural knee?
SJ
@PurpleGirl:
Last night I was reading some vicious right wingers ranting about people abusing welfare and food stamps. My favorites are the WALMART CASHIERS. They seem to think they should be the ones to decide who really deserves government checks because of course, they can determine everything about a person’s situation just from the stuff they’re buying. The rant is usually along of the lines of, “I see people buying groceries with food stamps then they’re buying DVDs and video games. If they can afford that they obviously don’t need food stamps!” Either it doesn’t occur to these people that if such customers didn’t have food stamps every dime they have would go to food then they’d have no money for anything else, or else they really think people on welfare have no right to ever have fun or enjoyment.
I don’t believe anyone on disability doesn’t deserve it or is faking it because you CAN’T. It takes YEARS to get confirmation from a judge who declares you are disabled. And during those years you can’t work (that is, are not allowed to) because if you do your disability claim is thrown out the window. So you spend three years or so with no money and rely on another working family member to support you, which is difficult since your family income is now drastically reduced. Anybody who is faking it is probably going to get fed up with waiting and go back to work. And then if you finally win the case and get monthly disability payments, they are based on what you made back when you worked (and if you’ve never worked, you aren’t getting this.)
Just one other thing: there are a lot of people on disability that don’t look like there’s “anything wrong with them” that allows them to be on disability. But a lot of medical conditions can’t be seen on the outside. If somebody is on disability you can be sure they spent years trying to convince several doctors and judges that they really are disabled, and didn’t get a dime until they convinced all those people that they truly are.
Jay C
@JoyfulA:
Absolutely tell your orthopod about your suspicions of EDS: among the various problems with the disease is the issue that, as the lack-of-tension in connective tissue (like ligaments) is caused by a biochemical imbalance: the protein problem that causes the tissues to loosen up is systemic: where surgery is concerned, don’t let what happened to my wife (years ago, admittedly) happen to you: she was operated on to repair a bad knee, and the surgeon (unwittingly) simply tied up her own ligaments, not realizing that they would loosen up again in a few years (necessitating more surgery). EDS isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer to joint problems, but it shouldn’t be ignored if there’s any question.
Nutella
Speaking of inequality, have you seen this on US lifespan by county?
Origuy
There are other connective tissue disorders besides EDS; one of the best known is Marfan Syndrome, which is characterized by being very tall, with long fingers. It can cause aortic aneurism, as can some forms of EDS.
Before my friend was diagnosed, she had spinal surgery, which caused arachnoiditis, an inflammation of the arachnoid membrane of the spinal cord. It is very painful and there are no effective treatments.
celticdragonchick
@StringonaStick: @gene108:
Thanks for the input :)
You both gave me some good ideas.
StringonaStick
@jonas: Exactly right, Jonas. Many attempt it who are not actually disabled, very few of those get away with it and often get caught later on. The problem is that these types, like my half-sister, are clogging up the works with their fake disability BS and this making it harder and more time-consuming for people who really are disabled to work their way through the system.
My half-sister’s ‘disability’ is moral and intellectual; it is morally wrong to try to game a system created to help people who truly need help, and her aggressively chosen lifestyle of not finishing high school, not bothering with getting a GED, and being sick of only being able to get crappy jobs because of these choices does NOT entitle her to faking her way into the disability system. These are the points I was trying to make.
I am thankful that the system is robust enough to keep her and people like her off the rolls, but I am pissed that this also makes it that much harder, more time-consuming, etc for people who truly need the help to actually get it.
StringonaStick
@gene108: You do have some good points there, but anything that requires action based on not having enough workers at some future date just isn’t going to get much attention in the current high unemployment environment, high insanity political environment, impending presidential election environment, etc. Once we know that the Rethugs aren’t going to get to name the next 1 or 2 Supreme Court justices, crash the remainder of the New Deal, etc, maybe then we can worry about the issue of not enough potential employees.
Personally I think the bigger issue is an increasingly inadequately educated workforce, and the Right is doing what it can to cut/degrade public education from K through PhD’s. A smaller workforce but one composed of highly educated workers is much less of a problem than not enough under-educated workers, correct?
StringonaStick
Ladies and gents, we have a winner!
Maude
@cckids:
There are two SS disability programs. SSI is for people who haven’t worked enough to get SSDI.
SSI gets Medicaid. SSDI gets Medicare. Medicare kicks in 24 months after the official date of disability. SSDI kicks in 5 months after the disability date.
SSI in NJ gets rent subsidy from the state if HUD isn’t available. SSDI does not. I know this because I am on SSDI facing eviction.
It usually takes over two years to get on SSI or SSDI. You must prove, with medical evidence, in accordance with Labor Laws, that you can’t do substantial work.
It is rare for someone to cheat the system.
If I could work, I certainly would get a full time job to help myself.
JoyfulA
@Jay C: Thanks, Jay C. I will do a little online research on EDS, and then ask my orthopedic surgeon next week, “Have you ever thought of me in conjunction with EDS?” and see where the conversation goes.
In my experience (N = 4), orthopedic surgeons are not very bright, but this one is fairly smart (and extremely cautious), which is why I’ve kept him.
the fugitive uterus
Did anyone watch the Frontline special on the Wall Street bailout? It will make you go fetal. I had avoided learning the details for this very reason. I now feel personally violated by Wall Street. How do we wash off this filth?
the fugitive uterus
and Geithner, what a worthless POS.
Cap'n Magic
Let’s see if I can add fuel to the fire….
jacksmith
REALITY!! And A Fix for Unemployment, Homelessness and Hunger
In addition to fixing healthcare the right way we need a NewDeal. We need a permanent and updated FDR WPA (Works Progress Administration). A Full employment act requiring the government to provide a job for everyone able to work that wants to work at a living wage or better. At safe, meaningful work where they live. Guaranteed by the US government. With free or very affordable excellent healthcare and free or very affordable education and training for advancement or just personal enrichment.
( http://my.firedoglake.com/iflizwerequeen/2011/05/16/how-about-a-little-truth-about-what-the-majority-want-for-health-care/ )
( Gov. Peter Shumlin: Real Healthcare reform — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yFUbkVCsZ4 )
( Health Care Budget Deficit Calculator — http://www.cepr.net/calculators/hc/hc-calculator.html )
( Briefing: Dean Baker on Boosting the Economy by Saving Healthcare http://t.co/fmVz8nM )
START NOW!
As you all know. Had congress passed a single-payer or government-run robust Public Option CHOICE! available to everyone on day one, our economy and jobs would have taken off like a rocket. And still will. Single-payer would be best. But a government-run robust Public Option CHOICE! that can lead to a single-payer system is the least you can accept. It’s not about competing with for-profit healthcare and for-profit health insurance. It’s about replacing it with Universal Healthcare Assurance. Everyone knows this now.
The message from the midterm elections was clear. The American people want real healthcare reform. They want that individual mandate requiring them to buy private health insurance abolished. And they want a government-run robust public option CHOICE! available to everyone on day one. And they want it now.
They want Drug re-importation, and abolishment, or strong restrictions on patents for biologic and prescription drugs. And government controlled and negotiated drug and medical cost. They want back control of their healthcare system from the Medical Industrial Complex. And they want it NOW!
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WILL NOT, AND MUST NOT, ALLOW AN INDIVIDUAL MANDATE TO STAND WITHOUT A STRONG GOVERNMENT-RUN PUBLIC OPTION CHOICE! AVAILABLE TO EVERYONE.
For-profit health insurance is extremely unethical, and morally repugnant. It’s as morally repugnant as slavery was. And few if any decent Americans are going to allow them-self to be compelled to support such an unethical and immoral crime against humanity.
This is a matter of National and Global security. There can be NO MORE EXCUSES.
Further, we want that corrupt, undemocratic filibuster abolished. Whats the point of an election if one corrupt member of congress can block the will of the people, and any legislation the majority wants. And do it in secret. Give me a break people.
Also, unemployment healthcare benefits are critically needed. But they should be provided through the Medicare program at cost, less the 65% government premium subsidy provided now to private for profit health insurance.
Congress should stop wasting hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money on private for profit health insurance subsidies. Subsidies that cost the taxpayer 10x as much or more than Medicare does. Private for profit health insurance plans cost more. But provide dangerous and poorer quality patient care.
Republicans: GET RID OF THE INDIVIDUAL MANDATE.
Democrats: ADD A ROBUST GOVERNMENT-RUN PUBLIC OPTION TO HEALTHCARE REFORM.
This is what the American people are shouting at you. Both parties have just enough power now to do what the American people want. GET! IT! DONE! NOW!
If congress does not abolish the individual mandate. And establish a government-run public option CHOICE! before the end of 2011. EVERY! member of congress up for reelection in 2012 will face strong progressive pro public option, and anti-individual mandate replacement candidates.
Strong progressive pro “PUBLIC OPTION” CHOICE! and anti-individual mandate volunteer candidates should begin now. And start the process of replacing any and all members of congress that obstruct, or fail to add a government-run robust PUBLIC OPTION CHOICE! before the end of 2011.
We need two or three very strong progressive volunteer candidates for every member of congress that will be up for reelection in 2012. You should be fully prepared to politically EVISCERATE EVERY INCUMBENT that fails or obstructs “THE PUBLIC OPTION”. And you should be willing to step aside and support the strongest pro “PUBLIC OPTION” candidate if the need arises.
ASSUME CONGRESS WILL FAIL and SELLOUT again. So start preparing now to CUT THEIR POLITICAL THROATS. You can always step aside if they succeed. But only if they succeed. We didn’t have much time to prepare before these past midterm elections. So the American people had to use a political shotgun approach. But by 2012 you will have a scalpel.
Congress could have passed a robust government-run public option during it’s lame duck session. They knew what the American people wanted. They already had several bills on record. And the house had already passed a public option. Departing members could have left with a truly great accomplishment. And the rest of you could have solidified your job before the 2012 elections.
President Obama, you promised the American people a strong public option available to everyone. And the American people overwhelmingly supported you for it. Maybe it just wasn’t possible before. But it is now.
Knock heads. Threaten people. Or do whatever you have to. We will support you. But get us that robust public option CHOICE! available to everyone on day one before the end of 2011. Or We The People Of The United States will make the past midterm election look like a cake walk in 2012. And it will include you.
We still have a healthcare crisis in America. With hundreds of thousands dieing needlessly every year in America. And a for profit medical industrial complex that threatens the security and health of the entire world. They have already attacked the world with H1N1 killing thousands, and injuring millions. And more attacks are planned for profit, and to feed their greed.
Spread the word people.
Progressives, prepare the American peoples scalpels. It’s time to remove some politically diseased tissues.
God Bless You my fellow human beings. I’m proud to be one of you. You did good.
See you on the battle field.
Sincerely
jacksmith – WorkingClass :-)
karen
@gaz:
But I think you’re misunderstanding me. I’m saying that there’s only so much pie because the people in power are keeping the supply low. There could be more pie but then that wouldn’t have the result they want so they see to it that there will never be enough pie.
As for the double jointedness, me, my sister and my mother all have ankles that fold in, they’re way too flexible. As a result, we fall a lot and I have no kneecaps or rather, no more cartilage left in them. I can bend over without bending my knees at all, my legs stay straight or at least before the RA they did. I can bend the top segment of my fingers without bending the rest of it. I have a friend with EDS, her whole family has it and it’s made working hard for her. I can bend my thumb back to touch my arm but I figured that just meant I was flexible. Hate my ankles though, it makes wearing heels a no no.