Disabled, or just desperate? Rural Americans turn to disability as jobs dry up

[packman]

Heartbreaking, frustrating, invoking many emotions - Article worth reading


http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/wp-content/themes/wapo-blogs/inc/imrs.php?src=&authapi-mob-redir=0&w=1200

The food was nearly gone and the bills were going unpaid, but they still had their pills, and that was what they thought of as the sky brightened and they awoke, one by one. First came Kathy Strait, 55, who withdrew six pills from a miniature backpack and swallowed them. Then emerged her daughter, Franny Tidwell, 32, who rummaged through 29 bottles of medication atop the refrigerator and brought down her own: oxcarbazepine for bipolar disorder, fluoxetine for depression, an opiate for pain. She next reached for two green bottles of Tenex, a medication for hyperactivity, filled two glasses with water and said, “Come here, boys.”

The boys were identical twins William and Dale, 10. They were the fourth generation in this family to receive federal disability checks, and the first to be declared no longer disabled and have them taken away. In days that had grown increasingly tense, as debts mounted and desperation grew to prove that the twins should be on disability, this was always the worst time, before the medication kicked in, when the mobile home was filled with the sounds of children fighting, dogs barking, adults yelling, television volume turned up.

Disabled America: Between 1996 and 2015, the number of working-age adults receiving federal disability payments increased dramatically across the country — but nowhere more so than in rural America. In this series, The Washington Post explores how disability is shaping the culture, economy and politics of these small communities.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/local/2017/06/02/generations-disabled/?utm_term=.e87d42cc4f13

[BamaRefugee]

1. Diabled? Desperate? OR DEPLORABLE? n/t

[anneboleyn]

21. I think a post like this is not in line with DU's ethics. Calling disabled people "deplorable"

does zero good and certainly doesn't make us look like the sensitive and compassionate people we believe ourselves to be politically speaking.

[woolldog]

38. BamaRefugee isn't calling disabled people deplorable...

he/she is saying that these rural people turning to the disability safety net are likely trump voters

[BamaRefugee]

40. thank you Woolldog, and exactly right

I do indeed consider it deplorable that people who ARE NOT DISABLED and are fraudulently claiming money rightfully due to REAL disabled people, many of whom are now, or soon will be, facing cut off or highly reduced funds, if they have even been able to successfully navigate the system to receive the aid!

And, having grown up in Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, and Georgia, I am willing to bet that in the demographic the article has reported on, with "no food in the house and the bills going unpaid" they are Trump all the way, and engage in many many lively and loud discussions about "them nigras and spicks jes livin' on relief, NOT PAYIN THAR BILLS, takin the munny we paid in taxes" which, of course, they pay no such thing.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

2. This country is so big, and so cruel. Why we would rather deny help to people who need it in case

someone who doesn't deserve it gets a little extra is beyond me.

[msongs]

3. sounds like some people may be over medicated nt

[JenniferJuniper]

4. Agree - that's probably the cause of

most of the disabilities.

I feel sorry for everyone though, especially the kids. They are doomed.

[Scurrilous]

5. Well, that was depressing..

[Solly Mack]

6. I know people exactly like that.

[loyalsister]

7. It's a hit piece

"Shame also for committing the journalistic equivalent of what I call “Betsyism” for Betsy DeVos who presides loudly over our education system without experience, knowledge, or curiosity. Only Betsyism, the willful extrusion of facts for ideological purposes explains the Post’s perfervid and ill informed article. Why is it ill informed? Because like other mainstream media forays into the subject of disability and Social Security there’s only a singular narrative: the US is filled with fake cripples who are stealing from good old you and me–a story that received considerable traction two years ago when the redoubtable radio hipster Ira Glass rebroadcast (without journalistic fact checking) a spurious story from Planet Money asserting phony social security disability claims are officially out of control in America."

https://stephenkuusisto.com/2017/06/03/the-washington-posts-distorted-view-of-rural-disability/

[irisblue]

8. Thank you for this article.

I Did not know the Ira Glass& NPR articles.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

10. While the article was certainly two-dimensional, I didn't think it was as bad as some povery-tourism

and "day in the life of a disability" articles I've seen. Which of course is damning with faint praise. The kind of coverage the issue needs is not the kind of coverage people consume, unfortunately.

[loyalsister]

14. No mention of the systemic biases

Disability is defined as permenantly unable to work for the purpose of SSI. There is NO safety net that is available for nondisabled people who have temporary set back due to health circumstances.

"Falsehoods about the powerless play well." Even among people who should know better or at least be more compassionate.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

15. Good point.

[anneboleyn]

20. MTE. These hit pieces attack real patients and the real disabled and the real poor

who are barely surviving with foodstamps, etc. These stories, which to me commit the crimes your citation nailed (loyalsister), go after "easy" targets that they know certain groups will dislike -- either the inner city poor or the rural poor (always pictured in their "native habitats&quot . They choose "examples" and present them in entirely unsympathetic ways (the kids are on disability?!! They have a teevee -- how dare they!!! -- They aren't REALLY disabled!! -- They are all lazy losers and we pay for their food and for their kids!!! -- the usual anti-poor bullshit). It infuriates me, and to see insensitivity towards the disabled and/or poor on DU bothers me very much.

And they are hit pieces as they never discuss these cases in detail or how the rate of disability LEGITIMATELY went up due to the following reasons (and these are just four reasons -- there are many more):

1. Aging baby boomers entering the age range in which the rate of serious injury from jobs goes up but they do not yet qualify for SSI retirement

2. Numerous wars (nonstop now since 9/11) affecting our military and resulting in a high number of permanently disabled men and women

3. Shitty disability insurance or total lack of disability insurance through employers (as employers are increasingly cutting down on worker benefits -- many people obviously don't even have health insurance much less long-term disability insurance through an employer) so that injured employees have nothing else they can turn to except to the federal gov and SSDI

4. People working multiple jobs and much longer hours because of the economy and cuts in wages, which places workers at higher risk for injuries as they are increasingly tired and prone to accidents and injuries resulting from repetitive motion problems and other work-related injuries

[tenderfoot]

23. There have been a lot of hit pieces posted here lately...

one concerning black Democratic voters.

Hillary and the DNC....

Now this...

[Blue_Tires]

9. All I'll say is if this story was about inner-city minorities

Last edited Tue Jun 6, 2017, 08:21 AM - Edit history (1)

We'd be called "lazy moocher bum druggies strung out on entitlements" or whatever...

And the GOP congress would campaign on eliminating these handouts, and win....

[WhiskeyGrinder]

11. Yep. When white people do it, it's a tragedy they can't control.

When black people do it, it's their culture if not actually ingrained in their genes.

[skylucy]

12. +100!

[loyalsister]

22. umm

Did you miss the part where they mentioned that it was generational implying that there is a genetic component? They use different language but are only slightly more generous when the media runs stories about people from rural areas.

[JustAnotherGen]

26. I didn't miss the genetic component

But those 4 kids never had a chance. If their father (s?) Could step in and take custody they might have a chance. Not a mention of the father or adult male presence in their life?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

27. My clumsy satirical conflation between "genetically inclined to laziness" and "genetically inclined

to depression, bipolar or diabetes" wasn't necessarily helpful. My apologies.

[LenaBaby61]

28. Yep. When white people do it, it's a tragedy they can't control.

When black people do it, it's their culture if not actually ingrained in their genes.

+ infinity

[JustAnotherGen]

24. I'm having a hard time with the article

I have a genetic debilitating disease - and I had and have too much pride. Black women's pride - strength and independence are a virtue. ETA - most people with my disease are on disability within a few years of diagnosis. I won't even take the disabled tags.

Never admit weakness or that you can't. The cultural divide is too wide and I can't relate. How did the daughter have 4 children she knew she could never afford financially to raise, and emotionally/intellectually develop. Those four kids never had a chance.

[treestar]

31. Yep. Right wingers are against

any government help, unless it is white people who need the help.

Someone said if this country were all white, it would have the biggest social safety net in the world.

[NickB79]

16. They've made some very bad decisions in life to get where they are

$300/month for cell phones. $98/mo for cable TV. The kids get video games to play, and they eat McDonalds even though they know they don't have the money. The mom needs money to pay her lawyer because she's on her FOURTH divorce. Payday loans!

My first reaction was: "They brought this on themselves! If they'd only used a little more common sense, they'd be better off!"

But then I thought of my own childhood. I grew up dirt-poor myself, the oldest of 3 kids on a family farm that never seemed to make a profit. Clothes were bought at garage sales, school lunches were free, and vehicles were rusty and often used for parts to keep other vehicles running. We worked our asses off to keep that farm running, and my mom and dad were often working off the farm, at local factories or nursing homes to make ends meet when the price of milk dropped or a drought hammered the corn yields.

And looking back, we made some pretty shitty decisions too. My mom pissed away thousands of dollars a year on cigarettes. My dad bought far too much crap at auctions with the intention of fixing and selling stuff, only to watch it rust away until it was only good for scrap metal. Christmas brought far too many toys, most of them broken or forgotten within a month, as my parents tried to assuage their guilt by emptying the checking account on that one special day. My parents fought more and worked together less as the years passed and the stress of poverty crushed their marriage until they finally divorced when I was 19. My parents neglected and emotionally abused us as their willpower waned and crushing depression took hold.

And now that I'm a grown man with a good job, nice house, college education and loving family of my own, I look back and think how easily it would have been to fall into the same trap that they fell into. I almost did, on numerous occassions. It wouldn't have been hard; just let the depression take hold, accept a minimum-wage job and a shitty apartment or trailer home, and follow the same path. My brother did just that, and now he's a 33-yr old man with a 13-yr old daughter he barely sees, who's perennially behind on child support, can't hold down a job and often lives out of a trailer or his truck.

Poverty is more than an economic situation. It's a disease. It's something that permeates your mind and destroys your mental health, until you think this is all you are. This is all you're good for. This is all you deserve. And you just give up and let yourself and your children and your children's children be pulled in.

In a perfect world, we would combat poverty with not only financial aid and job training, but free, mandatory mental health counseling.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

18. At the intersection of social services and social science, there's a growing understanding of

"poverty thinking," referring to the kinds of decisions that look "bad" to people who aren't living in poverty or have very little connection to it, and you've definitely described it. When you live in a country with no safety net, you do what you think is right in the moment, and it becomes harder and harder to pick the right path out of where you are, so you start thinking shorter and shorter term. Thanks for your perspective; it's an important one.

[MichMary]

19. I agree with you

I have worked, both professionally and as a volunteer, with people in poverty. I believe depression is a huge part of it, and cause or effect, I don't know.

[packman]

36. Good post

It is difficult to stay above water, a constant struggle and all too easy to slip under and give up. My first reaction was that $300 cell phone, 98 for cable, internet, dogs, video games and a lawyer and then scrapping for food at the end of the month. God bless them and I hope their lives improve, but they seem to have given up their lives to drugs, poverty, and a defeatist life style.

[Texasgal]

17. Sounds like these folks

need decent healthcare!!!

[renate]

25. that just made me so sad

It's bad enough to be poor and to struggle, but with the addition of the family members' mental health issues and physical pain, the chaos and uncertainty surrounding every single minute of that family's life just sounds unendurable.

And just think--that's a single snapshot, of one family, over just a few days. Multiply it by millions and the heart weeps.

[treestar]

29. If they are right wingers, they should move

to the city where the jobs are.

When you ask right wingers about the situation where you can't find a job - you want to work but there are no jobs, I have heard them say that the person should move to where there are jobs. Oddly this is migration and could include immigration, which they are also against, or want regulated (the only thing about the economy that they want regulated.)

[grantcart]

30. 60 Minutes had an expose on this a few years back

In deep red states like Alabama and Mississippi the state hired consultants to assist their unemployed in getting on DSI.

Basically all they needed was for a local doctor to say "physically unable to find a job in this area". When they interviewed the doctor he said "there are no jobs in this area so they are all physically unable to find one here".

[bresue]

32. It is more a generation of uneducated and untrained

Our culture has transformed so quickly to technology...that many with limited intelligence or training cannot compete for the high skilled jobs that are available.

And the older generation cannot help them, because they are even more retracted from the situation.

It is sad and I came from a poverty rural area and have seen this happening too often.

On the bright side though, with the development of technology, many in rural areas can finish their college training on-line. Many are taking advantage of this and I do believe in about 10 years, rural areas will have a turn around. With the slow placement of internet lines to the rural areas...they are about 10 years behind on technology.

And I have even known of several 'virtual workers' who were able to move back to rural areas and continue to work. This will also infuse these struggling communities. I think it is fantastic!

[ileus]

34. I moved from a rural town to an even more rural town 11 years ago.

At our old home in 06 we had 8m service......we still can't get 8m.

On the other hand my now 24 mile commute takes 2 minutes less than my 7 mile commute to the same place.

[ileus]

33. around here all the generational checkers

are taught by their parents and pass down to their kids how to game the system. It's just the way it is here...


On the other hand loads of new disability patients are miners used to making 60-100k a year and are faced with making 7 bucks an hour, something very few can afford. So they instead start the process to get disability. It's a long process, but hire the right lawyers and see enough doctors and you will be successful.

Lot's of adults live off grandparents checks also. I've known a few that lost what little they did have after pawpaw died and the checks were terminated.


My wife could churn out 100's of examples of the three types above.

[brewens]

35. Used to be that people with good jobs that could possibly qualify for disability, would do

anything to hang on to retirement, even working in pain every day. They did that because they could make it and it was worth it to them. Many times their employers would find way to accommodate them, glad to see a good long time employee still earn a living and make it that last couple years.

One of my best friends ever, though much older that I, was a beer driver who's eyesight went bad. The boss let him drop down to full-time warehouse man at a small pay cut and keep working. I was still just a kid, head truck loader and that really probably cost me getting to move into that job. But I still lived at home and he was like the greatest guy ever to me. I got the job when he retired.

I got screwed out of another job exactly the same way. Just as I was going to be hired at a farm co-op, they closed down another plant. The two main guys running the place were buddies of mine and really wanted me down there. But they had a guy at the plant they closed down that was close to retirement that was willing to relocate to keep working and I was out! They even had to hire a part-time guy to make up for keeping that guy, but I couldn't afford to take that job.

Things are so much more cut throat these days, chances are in both cases, the companies would cut the old guy loose and hire the new kid. Both of those guys might be applying for disability for sure, rather than look for a new job. The beer driver would have for sure probably aced his way right into a Teamsters disability retirement if he had wanted to.

[kimbutgar]

37. And they voted for chump and rethugs who are salivating to take away these benefits

The whole family is on drugs, looks like they need exercise ( which would help their depression) and grow their own vegetables.

[loyalsister]

39. The Washington Post just illustrated the biggest flaw in disability coverage

When it comes to disability, most reporters don't know what they don't know. That’s because journalists share most of society’s conflicting prejudices: that disability is something pitiable, that it’s natural for people with disabilities to be unable to work; yet, at the same time, that it’s easy to coast “on disability,” that these benefits don’t come with strings. We are used to coming to subjects from a position of relative ignorance, but we pride ourselves on asking questions; but when the subject is disability, too often we leave basic questions unasked or unanswered.

http://www.poynter.org/2017/the-washington-post-just-illustrated-the-biggest-flaw-in-disability-coverage/462202/