14 million Americans collect disability

Did you know that, "The federal government spends more money each year on cash payments for disabled former workers than it spends on food stamps and welfare combined"?

Funnily enough though, "There's no diagnosis called disability:"

As far as the federal government is concerned, you're disabled if you have a medical condition that makes it impossible to work. In practice, it's a judgment call made in doctors' offices and courtrooms around the country. The health problems where there is most latitude for judgment -- back pain, mental illness -- are among the fastest growing causes of disability.

Unfortunately, "disability has also become a de facto welfare program for people without a lot of education or job skills." But just like regular welfare, it's not all glam and gold:

But going on disability means you will not work, you will not get a raise, you will not get whatever meaning people get from work. Going on disability means, assuming you rely only on those disability payments, you will be poor for the rest of your life. That's the deal. And it's a deal 14 million Americans have signed up for.

Basically, the number of adults -- and kids -- pulling disability checks has more than made up for the decrease in welfare recipients since Bill Clinton's Welfare To Work bill in 1994 that "ended Welfare as we know it."

Unfit for Work

By Chana Joffe-Walt | NPR

URL: http://n.pr/Z1KId4