Why is it acceptable for the physically disabled to be unemployed and
living off the government? Why does the government(s) allow it and why
don't most disabled people strive for more? I have "Severe" Cerebral
Palsy and
work as a Computer Programmer/Analyst making more in a month than
others with
the same disability make in a year. I have a wife, job, van, house and
am very happy. I just don't understand the why either side accepts the
situation. We look at each other as if the other is crazy. What
happened. Why am I different?

I'm an expert as to what the oppression looks like today and how
personal upbringing affects a person's outlook and potential. I would
like to know how this became acceptable in US/WORLD history by
governments
and the whole of the afflicted.

Also are there any clubs or groups (online or in MN) who feel that
there are a too many people wasting a good life?

marc1tm,

One thing you might consider is that there are widely varying levels
of disability. Some disabled people such as yourself, can have nearly
as much functionality (or more) as non-disabled people. Other disabled
people may have so little functionality that they can not even feed
themselves, go to the bathroom by themselves, or change their own
clothes.

I am sure that you are aware that, just among people with Cerebral
Palsy, the level of disability can run from extremely functional, as
you are, all the way to the other end of the spectrum, where they are
barely functional at all and require round-the-clock care and
assistance.

You state that "I'm an expert as to what the oppression looks like
today and how personal upbringing affects a person's outlook and
potential." Truthfully, you are an expert on YOU. Given the wide range
of near-total disability to barely any disability at all, there is no
way for you to know, or to be an expert on, what the disabled
experience is like for someone else.

Sure, there are probably a good number of deadbeats that abuse the
system. However, it is likely that there are far more people who
genuinely qualify for and need the assistance they are receiving. One
of the consequences of the great advances that have been made in
medical care in the last couple of decades is that some disabled
people who wouldn't have survived back then survive now. We can hardly
save their lives with medical technology and then say, "Sorry, you're
on your own now. Don't have enough functionality to hold a job? Too
bad, that's not our problem."

As a society, it IS our problem. The best that we can do is try to
improve the system so that there are less abuses, without depriving of
that care and assistance the people who truly need it.

I hope that you will find this information helpful in trying to
understand why things are they way they are.

Regards,

aceresearcher

Thank you for your comment. Yes I am aware of the run the spectrum of
such a broad term.  Agreed some are truly struggling with every basic
daily need. I want to know when and how society decided that working
was desirable for some and not for others. I’m not trying to be
insensitive at all. I want every one to be able to dream as big and
bigger than me. I just don’t understand why this assumption is so
backwards.

I just seems to me that America and the world would be better off if
we would focus on getting everyone to be the most productive and have
as fulfilling lives as possible. The assumption is made that people
with certain disabilities aren't employable until proven otherwise.
This leaves the person looking at an uphill battle when the assumption
should be that everyone is employable with the right environment and
education.

marc1tm,

I think that your assumption that society has decided it is desirable
for some disabled people to be employed, and not desirable for others
to be employed, is an erroneous assumption. I do NOT think that
society has decided that at all. Asking "when and how society decided
that" is a pointless question, because society never made that
decision.

It's my understanding that health care institutions and agencies that
work with the disabled strive very hard to bring disabled people to
the highest level of functionality of which they are capable. Once
this level of functionality has been determined for each person, a
decision is THEN made as to what level of employment they are able to
perform, and a serious attempt is made to find them this employment.
In addition, further effort is made to provide them with education
and/or training to improve their skills.

Often, severely disabled people are hired through special employment
programs to perform jobs that are within their capabilities.
Unfortunately, the reality is that, for many disabled people, their
level of independent function is not high enough to perform ANY job.
While the system is far from perfect, I believe that it DOES strive to
get each person to be "the most productive and have as fulfilling
lives as possible".

I hope that my comments prove helpful to you in understanding the
situation.

Regards,

aceresearcher

Dear marc1tm, 



As you are probably aware of, the problem was for years that employers
discriminated against disabled people. I have worked with blind
people, and many have hard time to find a job. This is even worse with
mentally disabled.

I think - and any sociologists of the disabled would peobably agree,
that it has much to do with upbringing, as well as with the "type" od
disability. It was common for years that deaf people worked in low
incomed manual jobs, like in printing houses, because the hearing
people thought that the noise wouldn't borther them. Deaf schools
were, in a way, trade schools for people who'd work in all of these
jobs, without any real preparation to "white collar" jobs.

Good Day,

I do not know the statistics on just how many disabled people are
active in the work force. I also don't know how many could be that are
not. But, let's look at it this way:

Take a perfectlly healthy individual. On welfare.
Why? I am sure there are some that are on welfare because they they
could not find a job, and will be off it the minute they do. I also
know that there are millions of individuals on welfare in the US and
Canada who don't care for a job. They think we are nuts for working.

I think it all comes down to the individual. There will always be
those who will prefer being on welfare than going to work five days a
week. These people are dead beats, which means they are not motivated.
More money from a real job is not a motivation to them.

Considering the number of healthy people who don't have jobs and are
on welfare, I think there will always be those who are disabled, and
will choose to abuse the sysetm out of lack of motivation for a better
lifestyle.

Regards,
Slawek

Hello,

All these comment are valid and very good. From my personal experience
and observation of other disabled people (employed, unemployed, and
underemployed). Some I have known all my life. An otherwise healthy
and stable disabled person that wants to work faces more social
battles than actual physical struggles. Grade and high schools have
high standards with lower expectations for completeion because the
assumption is that you need special ed for the lower accedemic
standards and not just for the wheelchair access or other physical
accomidation. College is even worse because they don't need to have
the accomidations to really foster learning. Fact: The more you force
a disabled person to fight his or her environment the less one will
accomplish just because of the effort envoled. All this doesn't even
account for personal issues that always come up between a student and
teacher. vocational couselor, other students or staff. Dealing with
Activities of Daily Life (ADLs) is easy compared to a vocational
couselor that trying to talk you out of Calc because the teacher's
favorite room is in the oldest part of the campus,upstair without an
elevator. At same time you know you need it to be an engineer and
wonder what they meant in the brochure as "Fully Accessible"
classrooms. It realy does happen this way.

I made it because I never gave up (although many compremised and
missteeps were made). It makes for a very active and full life for
myself and my bride. Because of these social uphill battles, I believe
that at some point society made a decision that it was too expensive,
awkward, or difficuly to make it convient for everyone who wants to
work and accually pay taxes. More later.

You sound like an unusually vigorous, ambitious and intelligent
person, relative to all humans, or all Americans, if you like. The
combination of vigorous, ambitious and intelligent trumps almost all
other abilities or disabilities. If other people with various
disabilities had these characteristics, the world would be very
different, and there would be no need to ask this question.

Few people are as vigorous, ambitious and intelligent as you are. On
one hand you are to be congratulated.

On the other hand, you did not do anything to earn or deserve your
temperament (or your disabilities). People who are not vigorous
ambitious or intelligent did nothing to earn or deserve their
temperaments, either. They just happen. They are natural phenomena.

That's my opinion. No citations. Just common experience, plus
mainstream psychology regarding personality traits and IQ.

Cheers,


BVT

If you haven't already done so, you should read Ayn Rand.
Enjoy,

Steph

While you are inteligent, and able to grasp things such as computer
programming, you must understand that many people are not. If you
happen to be a person who has an iq level lower than the mean of 100,
(50% of the population) and you are handicapped, it is unlikey you
will find employment no matter how motivated you are. Look around you.
Most jobs require brains, or brawn, many require both, very few
require neither. But for half the handicapped people they lack the
brains. Just as half the able bodied folks can't learn things as
complex as programming, neither can half the disabled. This means that
50% of the disabled, who would otherwise be working in a factory
somewhere, will be unemployable.