Rick Santelli discusses an NPR article titled "Unfit For Work" released this week that is an absolute must read. He hits on some of the highlights, but what I found most fascinating is that the top two leading reasons for disability today are back pains and learning disabilities, both of which are extremely difficult to disprove.
An American today has the option of going to the doctor with back pains and collecting $13,000 per year with medical insurance (while relaxing at home) or working hard at a minimum wage job for 40 hours a week collecting about $15,000 per year most likely without medical insurance.
How many people stay on this gravy train once it starts? Fewer than 1 percent of the Americans on disability in 2011 have returned to the work force. The article discusses the incentives to keep a child performing poorly in school in order to continue to receive a $700 a month check for their inability to succeed in the classroom.
Welfare programs cost the state money, while disability is a federal costs. As Santelli points out, these 14 million (and growing rapidly) newly disabled Americans are removed from the labor force and not counted as unemployed.
Another sign of recovery in America during the new depression.
