awesome
If you’re THAT pressed about it, I will personally refund you the $1 that comes out of your check for welfare programs.
Also, even if no taxes were taken out, someone working 40 hrs/week at $7.25/hr would still be in poverty, so I don’t even know what you’re on about right now.
Got no problem with welfare for people that need it. How many people are taking advantage of the system? How many of them CAN work but choose not to work? Lazy Americans.
There are actual statistics on that if you decide to stop being A Lazy American™ and go look them up.
What’s so funny is people thinking they know what other people need.
So a 20year old healthy capable young man decides to claim a disability so he can get a check from the government instead of going out and working. This is okay?
Seriously, do you guys think this is okay?What program are you referring to?
Clearly he is referring to the all-encompassing Welfare Program administered directly to Lazy Americans. No application process necessary, just show up and say “I have the disability, hand me some cash” and voila! It’s lobster & prime rib time.
Kinda feel like you still think I’m talking about the entire welfare system and all of the recipients. I am not.
No, I think you’re talking about Strawman McMythpants of Welfare Cheatsylvania. Especially since you’re opining about How Many Lazy Americans Refuse to Get Jobs, but you’re refusing to cite any sources beyond “This Totally Exists Because It Exists”, published in the journal of It Feels True So It Must Be.
It totally doesn’t exist, welfare is difficult to access and doesn’t even offer enough money to the minority of people who are able to get on it but tbqh if some 20 yr old who is totally able bodied and otherwise equipped for life (what does that even mean) somehow scammed the system (and what does that even mean) into giving them the pittance that welfare is
SO FUCKING WHAT?
Do you know how much food stamp money is unused every year? How many billions of dollars go to war jnstead of schools? I don’t give a goddamn about anyone who might be scamming welfare, that is barely a drop in the “unethical things money goes to” category. I don’t even think it should be unethical tbh.
“So a 20year old healthy capable young man decides to claim a disability
so he can get a check from the government instead of going out and
working. This is okay? “Getting disability money is not easy. Simplified, there are two kinds, SSI and SSDI Both require that you actually have medical documentation of disability, so if they’re faking, they have to put a lot of effort into faking over a long period of time. SSI is only available to those who are disabled and very, very poor – “poverty line” isn’t low enough on its own – and it’s not much. Getting money through other benefit programs ends up reducing your SSI payments and you HAVE to apply for all of them to qualify for SSI. It’s tough to get and pays out little. SSDI has a higher income limit, near the poverty line. To get SSDI you have to have worked for the equivalent of 10 years full-time over your lifetime with five of those years within the last ten, with some age-related exceptions (if you’re 20 obviously they don’t expect you to have 10 years’ worth of full-time work, but you’d have to have some, unless you were documented as disabled while still a minor; not sure exactly how much work is needed though). So that’s not really an option either for a lot of people who just want to be lazy.
Even if he did manage to game the system, he’d have only $1000 or so monthly. In a low cost-of-living area that will pay for rent (in a crappy efficiency apartment, not renting a house or a nice two-bedroom apartment), utilities, a cheap phone plan, and essential groceries/toiletries. With little to nothing left over. He’ll have to be stingy with heating and cooling to keep the electric bill affordable. He won’t be able to afford a car, or going out for entertainment with friends, or even ordering a pizza more than a few times a year. Not unless he gets a part-time job (full-time would usually make him lose his benefits). Say goodbye to clothes shopping at the mall, you have to go to Goodwill, and only buy what you really need. Etc. He’ll get enough money to survive but he’ll be in poverty or very close to it. That’s not a huge reward even if it works, which it usually doesn’t.
You don’t just walk into the social security office with a piece of paper from your doctor saying “So-and-so is disabled and can’t work.” There’s a LOT more proof and paperwork needed and the process can take a year or two.
This kind of fraud doesn’t happen on a large scale. It’s not non-existent but most people who get SSI and SSDI really do need it. Many of them, though, have invisible disabilities such as severe digestive disease, mental health problems, or disorders causing extreme fatigue varying in intensity day-to-day so when you see them they’re on their best days and feeling almost okay for part of the day. A large portion of people getting disability benefits “don’t look disabled.” But all but a very small percentage are disabled.
Also worth noting: for SSDI, at least, not only does your own doctor have to provide documentation of your disability just to get your application looked at, they also send you to a doctor of their choosing to verify it. And 2/3 of all applicants are denied the first time they apply. So yeah. If you’re dedicated enough to faking a disability that you manage to actually get SSI/SSDI, then by God, you can have that money.
Important note: It is impossible to design any system of any sort where multiple people do a thing together that is impervious to fraud. If it is usable, it is gameable. This is security theory 101.
The question, then, is how to minimize losses to cheaters. The answer, in the case of both unemployment insurance (1.9%) and medicaid (<1%), is “pretty damn well.”
Furthermore, basically all “effective” fraud prevention is only “effective” because they throw the baby out with the bathwater: regulations are already too strict and still getting stricter because the only way to keep out Cheaters™ is by denying everybody who Might Be Cheating.
The reality is that our countries are wealthy enough to just give literally everybody a liveable income for literally nothing, and yet antisocialist hysteria and pure spite prevent even our most needy from accessing resources they need to Literally Not Die, just because “what if someone cheats!!”
Of course I’m not surprised that folks would rather literally kill disabled people than be robbed of their illusion of moral superiority for Helping The Disableds™ by giving aid to someone who doesn’t meet their fetishistic standards.
I have heard of and SEEN FIRST HAND people who NEED DISABILITY and have been denied three times (with six month waiting periods between each) before they were sent to a federal level and then MAYBE they will get accepted for aid. And yeah, if they get approved, they get back pay… but what about those years that it takes to get help? How do they survive at all? IDK about you, but it’s basically impossible to survive with $0 in the bank and $0 coming in unless you have someone else footing the bill. Usually family, who may not be able to afford it themselves, but need to. You know, since their loved ones can’t work… but still need somewhere to live, still need food, still need the MEDICATION THAT MAKES IT POSSIBLE FOR THEM TO EVEN LIVE but WHATEVER RIGHT
I mean yeah I have known people who use the money to buy drugs and pizza hut and let their kids live in squalor but you know
I would rather pay taxes to help those who need help, even though there will be people who abuse it, than to let the others go without.