Posted on 03/14/2013 2:02:18 PM PDT by Oscar in Batangas
I Was a Danged Fool!
For twenty-two or so years before my retirement I had chronic back pain -- sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. When the pain was enough to take my breath away, I’d swallow a few ibuprofens, acetaminophens, or whatever over-the-counter pain relief I had on hand and carefully hobble off to work. Once or twice I self-prescribed bed rest for a day. But generally, if I could make it to the breakfast table, I could make it to work, figuring that the pain would subside as the day wore on.
It NEVER ONCE occurred to me that I ought to look into claiming some sort of SSDI benefit for my condition. To me, SSDI was for the blind, deaf, para- and quadriplegics, and severely mentally disabled people. As long as it was just a little back pain every now and then, I figured I could tough it out, unless I ever returned to manual labor jobs.
Imagine my surprise lately, when I read about folks who exhaust their 99(!!!) weeks of unemployment, then apply for –and get– SSDI for some newly diagnosed ‘disability’.
I was a danged fool! With the right lawyer, I might have had big disability payments all those years. Compared with the trillions of dollars of national debt that’s been added lately, my little ‘cut’ would have been just a couple of insignificant digits. And I probably deserved it as much as anyone coming off his/her 99 weeks of paid vacation right now.
Don’t you be a danged fool! Since this government is bound and determined to wipe us off the financial map, you might as well do what you can to help it along. Even if you don’t need it, take the money anyway…If you don’t, someone else at least as equally undeserving as you are will.
You pay the absolute minimum Federal income tax which you honestly owe, right?? Using the same logic you should claim the maximum Federal benefit for which you can truthfully apply. EBT card, food stamps, Obamaphone, SSDI, housing assistance, whatever.
Don’t need the extra money? This just doesn’t seem ‘right’? It goes against your morals?
I know. Same here. But that thinking applied to other times. All is fair in love and war, and this sure ain’t love. So get in on a few skirmishes. If you don’t feel good about keeping the money for yourself, you can still play ‘starve the beast’ and help your neighbors.
Don’t want food stamp groceries?
> Get in touch with a local food bank and have them give you a shopping list. Fill their shelves with stuff that their needy clientele will appreciate (no vodka coolers, rib-eye steaks and lobster tails here). > See if there’s a local church school with a lunch program that needs a hand in feeding kids from poor families > Maybe that church also has a soup-kitchen or food pantry > Use the free groceries yourself and donate the cash saved to some other good charity … (see below for starter ideas).
Don’t want the monthly benefit check or cash back on your EBT card for yourself? Hmmm, let’s see….
> Volunteer Fire Department, EMS, non-profit charity clinic? > USO, Police/Fire Survivors’ funds, VFW, KofC, Lions, Shriners Burn Center? > Conservative Political Action Committee? > Local TEA party? > Crisis Pregnancy Center? (Bonus points: tick off Planned Parenthood) > Battered/abused women’s shelter? > Local Boy or Girl Scout troop? Boys or Girls Clubs? > Academic scholarship for a needy, deserving relative or neighbor?
Even if you earn $100,000 per month from your personal retirement plan, collect your Social Security and give it away to some needy organization. (If you can’t think of one, send it to me. I’ll take care of it for you!)
Know for certain that, you are the far better judge of how to spend our money locally than is the Federal Government. So belly up to the bar, snuggle up to the teat, or whatever it takes. Get what’s yours and do your part to put it into the right hands…while there’s still some left to get.
…Like I was
NO! Let’s ALL suck on the government teat!
Even though I would probably have a higher standard of living if I wasn't so dang stubborn.
What is SSDI? Social Security Disability Income?
It used to go against my morals, but then I realized that the Gov’t is NOT a moral enterprise.
If someone in a helicopter were flying over your town, dropping $100 bills, wouldn’t you step outside to grab some? That is my view of Gov’t now.
At this point, I’ve worked nearly 20 years and had countless thousands stolen from me by the government during that time. Worked all through college, too...tutoring, construction, running summer camps for kids, threw lumber at a sawmill 8 hours a day in 90 degree heat for three years, etc.
How many never work a day and go on disability from the moment they turn 18?
It’s my money. The government stole it from me, but somehow, I should be too moral to legally take it back? My feet and back have been horrible for 7-8 years now, but I keep working like a sucker. Meanwhile, I see “disabled” people playing basketball at the local courts and buying expensive food with EBT’s all the time.
That said, I won’t do it just because I would still feel like a mooch. But, if I had a little less pride...
“NO! Let’s ALL suck on the government teat!”
Do you want a quick death or a long and lingering one? Let’s suck it dry and then watch the baby mommas wail. Bwahahaha!
To crush your enemies — See them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women!
I’ve likened it to going out to a restaurant with people you are only slightly acquainted with and everybody splits the bill evenly. My dining behavior doesn’t change in such circumstances and, while I’d prefer to pay individually, I don’t change what I would typically order.
Perhaps we all need to become the 500 lb guy who devours everything on the menu starting with the most expensive items and sits there all day until people stop wanting to split the check.
It’s not about ‘mooching’. It’s about fighting a war without bullets
Yet
Did you attempt to find a cure for your back pain? [not pills]
...I won’t do it just because I would still feel like a mooch.
&&&
Exactly. Those of us who have a work ethic and self-respect will not fall into the trap. It helps, though, to fantasize once in a while about joining the takers.
I spent enough time in the medical profession to know that I really never wanted to be a patient! So, no; the pills seem to work just fine.
I was talking of more holistic methods.
Yoga, simple stretching, message, acupuncture/pressure?
[I’ve had pretty severe back pain and kept it reasonably under control using a combo of these practices]
It's a matter of personal pride. I don't need to be beholden to anyone, I can carry my own weight.
I remember back in the 50's a lot of people in my neighborhood would rather make do with what they had than suffer the embarrassment of going to the church for a handout.
Once you admit to yourself that even though the good lord gave you a working mind and body and you still can't take car of yourself, you start hating on yourself and that never ends well.
When filling for the bennies, use the spanish language forms, they rubber stamp those....
A question to all that see stealing as OK. Are you stealing from “the government” or “the taxpayers” (aka the 40 some percent that actually pay taxex)?
I've recently (2 years ago) experienced the takers side of the business. I learned a lot, humility included. I learned that I could collect more in unemployment by sitting on my a$$ at home than I would working at Home Depot for $12/hour. I also learned that it takes about 10 minutes a week to do the on line paperwork to keep the money coming. I learned that if you want to get back to work starting your own business of doing side jobs, you need to lie to the government until you are on solid ground again. That was the hardest part. Being honest takes A LOT more effort (interviews, scrutiny about ANY income, etc.).
I have to admit, besides the stress of going into debt and seeing my family's life style withering away (which is humble middle class to begin with), it was like retirement. There were some perks. I slept in a couple days and spent a lot more time with the family than ever before. I once finished a honey-do list (including home maintenance projects) during that period.
I started doing sidejobs while seeking gainful employment. That grew into a license, insurance, an employee and some equipment. Now I am a business owner on the side of my first full time job. We are still paycheck to paycheck and working way more hours total (4 jobs between the wife and I).
But I still maintained enough pride to get back off the gvmt dole. Besides, my kids were watching.
My inversion table is the BEST thing I ever got for Christmas.
Used to have torturous back pain all my life. No more.
It’s a teeter hang-ups and is like magic.
The other path, the one most working guys take when they find themselves in intractable untreatable pain, is to take drugs to keep working. No way was I going to do that I knew exactly how that goes. First you wear out every doctor you can find until no doctor will give you a scrip. By then you're an addict and you need the drugs whether you have the pain or not, and you still have the pain, and you start using street drugs.
I took the path that almost no one else does. I stopped working. No drugs, no work, no addiction and no taking money from the government.
To your point, which is essentially to Cloward and Piven the system and make it collapse, I began to think that might be a rational strategy about four or five years ago seeing the trajectory of politics in this country. But there's no need to do anything to try to collapse the system. 0bamaCare is going to do that without any intentional help. It should be painfully obvious about a year from now.
Ironically, after 26 years of 24/7 pain, my back and neck problems began to resolve themselves and now, two years later, there is only a faint hint of it left.
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