Good Series on SSDI

[JayB]

Starring our very own Aberdeen:

 

http://apps.npr.org/unfit-for-work/

 

 

"There used to be a lot of jobs that you could do with just a high school degree, and that paid enough to be considered middle class. I knew, of course, that those have been disappearing for decades. What surprised me was what has been happening to many of the people who lost those jobs: They've been going on disability."

 

[ivan]

gotta love the invisible hand, no?

 

[JayB]

Well - depending on your perspective I suppose you could see the current state of affairs as an indictment of the market, or the government/policy - or both.

 

I don't have the time to debate the matter either way, but I think people who take either position will find plenty to chew on in the article.

 

 

 

[ivan]

what does it matter where the blame falls? the world changes and shit gets fucked up in ever newer ways - how does the life of the obese alabama retard w/ no conceivable prospect for a job stack up against the same damn retard 100 years ago?

 

i'm assuming this is the same article i heard on npr this weekend - chick seemed to not quite know what to think either.

[JayB]

The story and your comments do remind me of a good chuckle I had way back when when I heard someone on the radio pitching "customer service call centers" as one possible employment possibility for the out of work loggers in rural WA who weren't able to get jobs as prison guards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ivan]

they might do better manning suicide hotlines - would have some awful practical tips for sure

[Off_White]

Perhaps better still is the use of prison inmates as call center workers, just skip right over the prison guard job. Is incarceration the new dole?

 

 

[ivan]

charles dickens wouldn't know what to write about these days

[Crux]

Thank you for calling AT&T. All our lines are busy right now, but please stay on the line, as your call is important to us and a call center worker technical representative will be with you shortly.

 

(Please, sir, I want some more...)

[matt_warfield]

gotta love the invisible hand, no?

 

You forgot to include the part where we hunch down like the first image now in front of a computer.

Edited March 27, 2013 by matt_warfield

[G-spotter]

SSDI is shooting down nukes with lasers isn't it?

[Crux]

Yes, the strategic spray defense initiative is about shooting down pretty much anything. But mostly Republitards and other ballistic projectiles of comparatively limited range.

[rob]

Let's declare war on poor people, that way we can lower taxes for the rich who, after all, have been really suffering these last few decades

[tvashtarkatena]

"All Obama appointees must pass a battery of tests we wouldn't have a prayer of even cheating on because our intellectual and emotional intelligence was completely calcified by the 3rd grade."

 

- House Republicans

 

 

[ivan]

the prison-industrial complex is also doubling quite nicely as a welfare system

[rob]

I know a conservative who thinks we should make homelessness illegal, "like Switzerland did."

 

[tvashtarkatena]

Public policy made EZ.