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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThis Is What Happens When You Rip a Hole in the Safety Net
http://www.thenation.com/blog/173567/heres-what-happens-when-you-rip-hole-safety-netAn unemployment line. (Credit: Reuters)
Americas social safety net, such as it is, has recently come under some scrutiny. Chana Joffe-Walts in-depth exploration of the increase in people getting Social Security Disability benefits at NPR got many listeners buzzing. Then in The Wall Street Journal, Damian Paletta and Caroline Porter looked at the increase in the use of food stamps, called SNAP. All three journalists look at the increasing dependence on these programs and come away puzzled: Why are so many people now getting disability and food stamp payments?
The answer is twofold. Recent trends give us the first part of the explanation. Yes, as Paletta and Porter note, the economy is recovering and the unemployment rate is falling. But, as they recognize, the poverty rate is also rising. And therein lies the rub: people are getting jobs but staying poor. The available jobs are increasingly low-wage and dont pay enough to live off of. And the big profits in the private sector havent led to an increase in wages.
GDP and employment may be doing well, but that hasnt done much for those at the bottom of the totem pole. As the WSJ article points out, 48.5 million people were living in poverty in 2011, up from 37.3 million in 2007, a 30 percent increase. This is despite an unemployment rate thats fallen off its peak. Some of the fall in the unemployment rate has been driven by people simply giving up on looking for a job altogether. But those who do get jobs are likely trading their once middle-class employment for low-wage work. The National Employment Law Project has found that mid-wage jobs have been wiped out during the recovery in favor of low-wage work: low paying jobs grew nearly three times as fast as mid-wage or high-wage work.
But theres a deeper explanation that goes beyond the current economic picture. Arent there other programs for the increasing ranks of people living in poverty to turn to? Unfortunately, weve worked hard to weaken key parts of the safety net by changing how programs operate and then cutting back on their funds. Consequently, the number of people who are reached by programs for the poor has shrunk. But when you take away someones lifeline, they dont stop needing it. So they either suffer hardship or find support elsewhere. What disability insurance and SNAP have in common is that they are fully funded by the federal government, which also can set the eligibility requirements. While states narrow eligibility requirements for TANF or unemployment insurance, the federal government can leave them (relatively) more open for SNAP and disability. That leaves them absorbing those who weve thrown off the rolls of other programs.
Duer 157099
(17,742 posts)Afterall, what exactly is the definition of disability? The inability to work. If one cannot find a job, that certainly qualifies as an inability to work.
So yeah, we have a whole lot more disabled Americans than ever before.
And that doesn't even mention the mental health aspect of being unemployed and financially stressed for long periods -- that alone should also qualify one as disabled.
Our society is disabling many otherwise healthy Americans. Sometimes permanently.
Cal Carpenter
(4,959 posts)Kinda says it all.
eta: You're on a roll today, xchrom, I feel like I'm stalking you all over GD
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)It made treatable conditions worse and many of those became chronic.
caseymoz
(5,763 posts)There's also those who are pariah by employers due to their medical histories. In theory, they might be able to work, in fact, their insurance premiums are too high. Add that to people who are over 50, and employers don't want to hire them, either. In that case, they'd probably have some medical condition that could be designated a "disability."
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)They have formally come out against Social Security as the boomers are retiring.
They lied us into a war and got away with it and really believe they are fine as long as they can claim the other party is a bunch of commies.
Mojorabbit
(16,020 posts)They went after old people recently in the media and now the disabled are up. There may be umpteen reasons why the numbers increased like better diagnostic tests, ie pet scans and MRIs etc being developed or the availability of lawyers to help those who would have given up after being denied way back when. It certainly does not mean those people did not qualify medically.
Instead there was an insinuation that disabled people were scamming with a few anecdotal stories of same. I have MS and it was hell qualifying for disability.You are almost always automatically denied the first try. Being ill and trying to navigate the system was difficult. I grieved over my loss of Independence, I kept up my nursing license for a decade and ceus in case I could return to work. It took that long to accept it would never happen. The article acted like it was a piece of cake to get on SS disability. I am getting all fired up again about it!
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Message being: If they can work, so can you.
Now get your lazy ass out there, you bum.
abelenkpe
(9,933 posts)wavesofeuphoria
(525 posts)another part of the problem
Capt. Obvious
(9,002 posts)when they asked snidely, "Can I just quit my job now and have the taxpayers take care of me?"
WillyT
(72,631 posts)rwsanders
(2,585 posts)connection to the UK. The UK was about 20 years ahead of us on the whole ship the jobs overseas thing and a whole generation or two has been living "on the dole" with a subsequent increase in social unrest.
It is very frustrating that even the journalists are so narrowly focused on the U.S. that they can't take lessons from anywhere else or examine our impacts on others.
Cal Carpenter
(4,959 posts)else too many may connect the dots.
We cannot learn from history. We cannot identify economic patterns. We cannot possibly acknowledge how simple it really is, how illegitimate and precarious the global capitalist economy is.
Sigh.
lastlib
(22,982 posts)And the Repugs continue to cut education so they can keep it that way!
If they can't have slavery the old-fashioned way, they'll do it the new way...........
(Something in me wants to write a new anti-Hayek book: The Superhighway to Serfdom)
mwooldri
(10,291 posts)... states are now actively looking at welfare recipients to see if they could qualify for federal disability instead. Can't remember the program now but that is what is happening too. Once you're on disability and you can get *some* work with some accommodations for your disability that disability payment gets cut back, and you lose eligibility for medicare, medicaid, etc.