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The rise of disability in America

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BrewskiJr
Posts: 5738 - Karma: 1,478
Thought this was a pretty interesting article. Not politically one-sided either.


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

Mar 24 2013 1:22PM
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Z-Juice
Posts: 3151 - Karma: 1,504

Which one? Both?

I without a doubt agree that Americans are becoming more lazy in general. The stats in this article are evident of that. And new technology is certainly not helping.

But America as a whole is certainly not weak in my opinion. While there is a growing amount of people (like in this article) that bring us down on so many levels, America is still one of the greatest countries. The reason is  that we can pay for scumbags like these is because of our strong economy. And we can thank everyone from the entrepreneurs to the minimum wage earners for that.

But this flawed system is definitely promoting weak citizens by the Federal Government.

Mar 25 2013 5:29PM
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I_liketobutter
Posts: 2664 - Karma: 997
srsly.

also, isn't it a wonderful coincidence that the states with the highest disability rates are also the ones that:
1. are the most obese
2. are usually strongly republican and want to cut the "handouts" and lower the taxes that eventually pay for their fat fucking ass' health care

Mar 25 2013 5:41PM
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Puns
Posts: 2052 - Karma: 429
yeah I agree this is a sidetrack but still important I think, depending on what he meant by his original comment
Mar 25 2013 5:46PM
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skier_07
Posts: 326 - Karma: 51
I wonder if this is because they realize that is the only thing that will motivate them to do something with their lives. They know they should be doing something else but hey if the government is going to give it to me why bother. So lets vote for what we think the country really needs even though it will hurt us. Doubting this is the case but I am not sure of another explanation either. I guess the real question is if they were offered a good paying job that they could actually do would they take it and better their lives or are the like the people from The Glass Castle (chose to be homeless) and enjoy where they are at.
Mar 25 2013 7:49PM
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Ben.
Posts: 21463 - Karma: 683
Except the feds are letting the state take care of their own affairs. Thats precisely what Clinton and Obama both have done, made allocation of funds a state issue for many forms of "welfare". The states solution is to not do anything about it, and push it back on the federal government. If you read the article, you would see that the PCG is literally paid by the state to find these people and weed them out of the state funded programs, and push them to the federal disability program.

Especially amusing since Missouri is again fairly red, and certainly a small federal government, no handouts for lower class kind of state.
Mar 25 2013 8:20PM
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nagger
Posts: 1576 - Karma: 883
tldr that's what
Mar 25 2013 8:44PM
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monkatizer
Posts: 4704 - Karma: 1,518
this exactly.
Mar 25 2013 9:19PM
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GayWolf420
Posts: 37386 - Karma: 120,076
I'm willing to bet a good number of physically disabled people in this country are obese.
Mar 25 2013 9:29PM
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cbj
Posts: 2114 - Karma: 1,136
did you know, 1 in 4 americans are fat?

also 3/2 cant handle fractions?

JOKES I like America, but I like stereotypes more
Mar 26 2013 1:13AM
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PeppermillReno
Posts: 4802 - Karma: -655
Lots of people with nothing wrong with them collect SSI. "Anxiety" is a popular one.

These people aren't going to work at McDonalds for the same small ass amount of money unless a gun is put to their head though.
Mar 26 2013 3:33AM
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RudyGarmisch
Posts: 25443 - Karma: 13,844
Altruism works only in certain conditions and special cases, it's still very rare as a whole in the natural world. We as a species are altruistic, but only sometimes. we all don't donate all of our income to charity or spend all of our weekends volunteering to help other individuals of our species. We're human. We're individuals with our own selfish goals and aspirations, not worker ants in a colony. Some of us have a higher drive than others to pursue the things they want in life, and thus the sense of outrage we should all inherently feel when a single mom cashes her social security check to buy heroin instead of food for her kids.
Mar 26 2013 4:37AM
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shocker611
Posts: 2599 - Karma: 423
Right but at this point in the human population it isn't beneficial to continue passing along as many genes as possible, we are already overpopulated and if it continues problems are going to continue getting worse. So wouldn't it make since that you would want the best genes of those available moving on?
Mar 26 2013 1:00PM
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Darth.Maul
Posts: 2472 - Karma: 652
Hell ya! Utah reppin dat 2.9%

Too bad my "recovering" addict of a brother is on that shit. Such a lazy ass. He's 25 and won't get a job because he's in too much "pain" to get up in the mornings for work. So instead he sits and watches netflix and then goes out and gets drunk with his buddies at night.

But his sickness is from the drugs according to him and not the shitty diet/lifestyle he lives.
Mar 26 2013 1:12PM
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RudyGarmisch
Posts: 25443 - Karma: 13,844
I think i know what you're getting at, but I think it's just phrased wrong here because the way it's been stated, kinda sounds like eugenics.

Genetic diversity doesn't always track with gross population, and the assumption here you're making, which would be very hard to prove, is that being socially deficient means you are also genetically deficient in some way, and that it's our duty as humans to artificially cleanse our gene pool.
Mar 26 2013 1:13PM
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skiierman
Posts: 28699 - Karma: -5,563
No, science is saying that fat people are stupid. Being fat is not natural or healthy so it's not surprising that the brain is affected by fat, as with every other part of the body.

Obese people are inferior to the rest of us. That is a fact. In order to become obese you have to be lazy, unambitious and stupid to begin with, or you have to have an actual disorder where you gain weight regardless of what you do.

I wouldn't care for a second if everyone that was designated as self-caused obese were thrown into work camps until they either died off or lost the weight. They contribute nothing to society.
Mar 26 2013 1:15PM
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Skierguy1234
Posts: 1684 - Karma: 88
hahahaha

the 5 states with the highest percentage on disability are:
West Virginia
Arkansas
Alabama
Kentucky
Mississippi

please tell me more about how its the democrats fault


Mar 26 2013 1:21PM
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I_liketobutter
Posts: 2664 - Karma: 997
i agree 100%.

i don't think most people realize the cyclic clusterfuck these obese people are causing. they are affecting health care, taxes, food subsidies, everything.

same goes for cigarette smokers just to a lesser degree because they die quicker.
Mar 26 2013 2:40PM
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shocker611
Posts: 2599 - Karma: 423
I'm not saying that they are socially deficient though and that they are actually wasting human resources. I was really just playing the devils advocate in my initial argument but I do think that the world and the human population would be better off without some people. The whole argument kind of reminds me of the movie idiocracy where society just gets so dumbed down that everyone is on the verge of dying
Mar 26 2013 8:13PM
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JORMUNGAND
Posts: 360 - Karma: 480
I think Hitler had a solution for disabled people....
Mar 26 2013 8:28PM
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spliff.Life
Posts: 7847 - Karma: 1,549
this is exactly what im sayin! we need less people on this planet! maybe not to the extreme of things like allergies or type 1 diabetes....im sure other species dont have welfare enabling lazy obese members to consciously feed off others as we do, nor does their mere survival include things like driving to the store that cause harm to the planet
Mar 26 2013 9:52PM
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Puns
Posts: 2052 - Karma: 429
Okay so people should get to live or die based on your subjective view of what is valuable. Awesome.

For real though, why not allergies or diabetes, that's not an extreme case, but one that fits nicely into your previous terms. - you were gung ho for natural selection a second ago...

In my opinion it rarely has much to do with laziness. The large majority of people 'consciously feeding off others' are people who illegitimately can't work. I think we're on the same page with the premise of the article being hey people don't be shitty and lie to get things you don't deserve, but I am all for supporting people who actually need these services and it sounds like you aren't? Human life to me isn't valuable based on what it can contribute to society, but valuable in terms other than the economy and I would bet aggregate satisfaction would correlate positively to a kind of treatment that reflects this attitude towards marginal cases.
Mar 26 2013 10:25PM
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skiierman
Posts: 28699 - Karma: -5,563
No, fat people are scientifically proven to be more stupid, slower, a drain on the economy and overall a massive fucking speed bump on the highway of human evolution. There is not one shred of evidence that proves otherwise.
Mar 26 2013 10:43PM
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Puns
Posts: 2052 - Karma: 429
oh man you said the word science, you win.

If you read my comment you'd know I value people based on things other than what they can do for me.

I'd be curious to see what you'd consider fat - I'd be really surprised if none of your extended family members are fat.



I will also just sit here until you send me a scientific article that concludes 'fat people are stupider, slower, a drain on the economy and a speed bump in the highway of human evolution.'

You also can't tell much by looking at someones size - consider native tribes and their fat people, certainly you would consider them much more fit and worthy of life than most.
Mar 26 2013 10:54PM
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Edward.
Posts: 9366 - Karma: 445
I hate how people are so quick to label others as racist when the subject of blacks voting for Obama comes up. One thing I'll point out is that if someone running for president was Asian (more specifically Korean, just because I am), I am positive that almost every single Asian-American will vote for that person. Same would apply for every other race/ethnicity. If you're a minority reading this, you know it's true. If this were to ever happen one day, would I accuse someone as being racist for arguing that I'm voting for the person because of their race? No.

As you read this you might think I'm a huge racist. But I feel like Americans (mainly whites) are too scared to talk about race because some minorities are just so eager to accuse others of being racist to an unreasonable extent.
Mar 26 2013 10:57PM
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RudyGarmisch
Posts: 25443 - Karma: 13,844
Listen to this weeks This American Life if you can devote an hour to why we spend a quarter trillion dollars on this every year in our country.

This is something that the government needs to read.
Mar 26 2013 11:20PM
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GayWolf420
Posts: 37386 - Karma: 120,076
Wouldn't surprise me seeing as we aren't even cracking top ten in math and science worldwide. But yeah, I will agree that there is major abuse of the disability systems in our country. And unfortunately a lot of the resources don't reach those who need it the most.
Mar 26 2013 11:26PM
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B.Aussie
Posts: 5852 - Karma: 4,531
I wish Australian disability was as easy as that to get. Here it is all means tested to whoever you are dependent too. As if you have a disability that keeps you from working you need a carer.
Mar 27 2013 2:01AM
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PeppermillReno
Posts: 4802 - Karma: -655
Real talk.

I hate how good ideas like work camps get tagged with a bad label. Exactly what we need.


Mar 27 2013 6:17AM
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Zimmerman
Posts: 6992 - Karma: 1,021
threads
Mar 27 2013 6:40AM
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Campeador
Posts: 7516 - Karma: -1,227
Thanks for the laugh.
Mar 27 2013 2:34PM
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