Trends with Benefits

Jacob Clark
Psych
10-25-14
Trends with benefits
Okay, so i am very passionate about this topic. To get all this pent up emotion out isn't going to be pretty. So forgive me, but this will probably be an unorganized blob of personal feelings.
So, first things first. I feel like one of the biggest contributing factors in disability is the “victims mentality”. As time goes on it becomes more and more prevalent. Being taught to more and more kids. Basically this means they are being taught that they have no control over what happens to their body, and that somehow the world owes them something because of this. So naturally they hear about disability and honestly assume they need/deserve it. I call it the “pussification” of our youth. I understand there are some things that honestly need medical intervention and help. However, i think it is a vital part of becoming true men that we learn at some point in our lives to shoulder some pain/stress and do what we have to anyway. There is nothing i hate more than people trying to start a sympathy circus for themselves.
Secondly, i feel like the govt has f&^%#* up so bad, that people feel no guilt in taking advantage of the system. People aren't that dumb. If the govt is giving away “free” money, they will try to get in on it.
Lastly, i'd like to mention those with real disability. Dont get me wrong, still not showing any sympathy. This is because aside from the few people that are disabled through means outside their control, most are disabled through their own poor choices. Our tax money is going to pay for your scooter, because you couldn't stop eating crap food? tell me where the justice is in that.
So, i am very pro personal responsibility and being a true man. Which doesn't leave room for living off of something other than your own hard work.
Terms: Disability, well being, stress

This radio blog show was about how our disability and welfare systems really work in America. In the beginning, it focused on a town in Alabama who seemed to have everyone one being labeled as disabled and they were all receiving disability benefits. Before listening to this radio blog post, I already had mixed feelings about the welfare and disability system. I never really realized what else needs to be done in order for our disability and welfare programs to be a success.
I thought that the interview with the doctor that kept on saying that these people were disabled was very interesting. At first I thought to myself, “Who does this guy thinks he is, giving our money to people that does not need it?” But then, he brought up some good points like the fact that some of these people never graduated high school and some have never seen jobs that people didn’t have to stand. He made the point that with the mentality that these people had that they could not work in these conditions. The interviewer interviewed many different people and they could barely think of any job that they could even do while sitting down.
Some of the statements in this video suggest that one would choose to pick disability and make only around $13,000 a year compared to a low paying job like McDonald’s where they would actually make two thousand dollars more than they would with the disability. The blog suggest that they choose the disability over the other is because they don’t have to live in fear that they may not know how to do something, job security, and they wouldn’t have to worry about pain.
Another thing I didn’t know about disability is that in America, they do not count people on disability as part of the unemployment rate. I think that that is kind of shady. I feel as if the government should include the disability people as in fact unemployed people and start reevaluating the disability program and offer education on jobs and job training for those who may not have been educated on them.

In the beginning, and older couple were interviewed about the disability payments they received. They said it was a different world that it is today, and I agree with that. However, she said that they did things to their bodies that should not have been done, like physical work on the farm. Yes there was more physical labor, but it was not anything that would have been so strenuous that it would cause major problems. Some of the people just lacked common sense in situations that would probably harm them, yet they did it anyway. The number of people receiving the compensation doubles about every 15 years even though we do things to stop about it. I agree with the concept that there is no determinant what being disabled is. It is nothing more than a label. For me, back pain happens all the time. It is something that many people get, and a lot of it can be treated, but many people are too lazy or don't think they can afford to fix it. The people who are on disability get their payments, and that it. They're satisfied and do not try to accomplish anything else. I am not trying to bash on the county, but the large majority of these people seemed to be lacking in education. They had troubles speaking and communicating clearly. It makes me question what the overall population is like. I feel like they are far more uneducated than what I grew up around. I have neighbors back at home that seem to be far worse off than those who were interviewed, yet still climb up ladders, do yard work, and other physical activities on a daily basis. People get desperate and are too lazy to do anything else. Many people do not have the motivation to figure out what they can do. They see the easy way out and have no drive to do anything else. Nobody opposes the person who is trying to get benefits, and so the majority of people who apply for disability get it. This angers me that people take advantage of our system so much. It is so forgiving that no one thinks twice. I understand some people need it and that is why we have the system in place. It does not need to be given to every free loading person that comes in and says that they have something wrong with them. I think there needs to be much tighter restrictions on the system. Not everyone has problems that keep them from doing all available jobs. The well-being of our country overall is going down. The numbers increase nearly double each 15 years? That is unheard of and unacceptable in my mind. WE need to do something quickly before it becomes even more of a problem for the upcoming generations. There is only so much money to circulate and when such a large chunk of people are not earning their share, it takes a toll on everyone.

Terms: education, well-being, drive, motivation, disability

This american life episode about people getting disability money made me realize how often some people can over use or get around the disability paperwork. ¼ people in the hale county are considered “disabled” and get $1000 checks every month. When she meets with the doctor she finds out that he is a very well off and lives in a poorer part of town so he can assist them with their needs and inform them about applying for disability to help them out. Im the type of person who thinks if somebody can not work and is in pain while standing and such deserves to be under disability. I don’t understand people who think we should all think for ourselves, we all have needs and we’re all people so we should all help each other no matter what happened to them or the mistakes they’ve made in their lives. These people that this girl interviews claim they don’t even know what a job sitting down would be. That’s ridiculous! All these people have extrinsic motivation, they want to be able to say they have a job and can work for a living, but it puts them in pain. Also most of these people don’t have a proper education so it is very very hard for them to obtain the type of job where they can sit and have an easier life. All these people show achievement motivation as well, they would prefer to work and be apart of the economy, but they have to accept the fact that they are no longer useful in the economy. This trend with benefits interview made me realize you don’t always have to be completely handicapped to be considered disabled. It can be a wide variety of issues such as back problems or an accident that caused pain to a person which makes them unable to work. Although there are some cases where people can be considered “free loaders” and use the system to be lazy and get money because they do not feel like getting a job and working, I think it’s more important that we help everybody whether they need or not, you can never be too safe. And if somebody is going to take advantage of the system like that, then that is their issue. Also there is the lawyers that seem to take advantage of the system as well by getting paid more if their client wins the disabilities benefits, but that is their job. Now if they lie about the events that occur that it wrong, but if they do what they can to get the people the benefits they need then what are they doing wrong? It’s their job to twist words if they have to in order to win their case. I know my outlook on this situation seems extremely naive, but I do think it is very important that we help everybody.

Terms: Needs, extrinsic motivation, achievement motivation, disabled, handicapped, drive

Trends with Benefits blog response

10/28/14

I have my own opinions on welfare, as does everyone else. Most of us only know what we hear, and it is hard to make assumptions based on that small amount of information. Anyone who is commenting on this blog post is pretty privileged. Now I’m not saying that everyone is rich or has an easy time with money, but they’ve found a way to be here, at college, which means they are pretty dang lucky. At the same time, there’s a reason that all of us are here, and it is because we want to make a good future for ourselves, and not to pay for others. With that being said, my opinion is not what really matters. What matters for my purposes is to explain why these trends are happening from a psychological point of view.

If you listen to what the woman on the show was talking about and look back at we’ve learned in psych thus far, there are a variety of answers to why disability is an ongoing trend. The most obvious to me came from the health and wellness chapter we just read. On one of the pages, it talked about how if you had obese friends, you were more likely to be obese. This is not only true for weight gain, but also in the case of this town in Alabama. If 25% of the people in town are on disability, according to this principle, the rest of the town is more likely to end up on disability as well. It is more commonly accepted, people have learned through sensitization that they don’t need to work for their money.

Another thing that could be said about this subject is the fact that it lowers people’s incentives to work hard. Their motivation is hindered because they see other people getting incentives for doing nothing. They feel that it is unfair that they should work to reach their incentives, while others do not have to. Welfare in a sense can become almost like a positive reinforcement. It’s like if you gave a child a piece of candy every time they started to cry. I’m willing to bet that they might start crying a whole lot more, because they want candy. It’s the same as welfare, except that in that case, other kids see the neighbor kid get candy every time he cries, so they decide they’re going to cry so they can get candy too! And it works, so who’s the smart one? The kid or the parents? No wonder so many people are on disability benefits, looking at the rules of positive reinforcement makes it a no brainer.

On the other hand, these people who are on disability and especially those are not in dire need of it, will never really reach any intrinsic goals. They are not working towards anything; they have no internal drive to do well and to succeed, which is quite a sad existence. Most, for that matter don’t have that many extrinsic motivators either. I can imagine that having a part in working society makes you feel full of worth. Not to mention that these people also could possibly miss out on opportunities to be social and feel like they belong. Both of these according to Maslow are part of our pretty basic needs, with this being said, living on welfare can’t be all that glamorous.

Terms: Learning, Sensitization, Incentives, Positive Reinforcement, Intrinsic Goals, Extrinsic Goals

To be perfectly honest, my opinion of the blatant exploitation of the welfare system and social security in this country was already less than stellar. Sadly this presentation has done little to improve that. I find the very notion that there are more people being placed on disability every year than there are new jobs surfacing to be frankly jarring if not, a little rage inducing. I find myself coming back to what that one gentleman said during his interview. “Why am I working and you're not?” The afflictions that some of these people describe are hardly enough to exempt you from the work force. Diabetes shouldn't stop someone from having a job, neither should high blood-pressure. I have high blood-pressure, and my aunt is diabetic and she deals with more stress than anybody I know.

Things like this are a perfect incentive to get people to not apply themselves to anything. You relinquish them of their drive to get back on the work force even if their disability becomes a non-issue when you just start handing out free money for being the slightest bit unwell. How does one expect a setup like this to be temporary? How many people are honestly going to walk away from disability to get back on the work force given the option, when they can just sit at home and get free money? And let's not even get into the travesty of turning our children into living breathing checks because they're a bit slow on the draw. That's a whole other argument. So why is this tolerated, nay encouraged!? Why is it that there's a system dedicated to handing out free money for the 'well-being' of the 'financially disadvantaged'? Because it's a business that people can make money off of. Look at folks like Binder and Binder. They aren't getting people on disability out of sheer benevolence, they're doing it because they get paid gratuitous amounts of money from the government to do so. It's a business. I guarantee you that if lawyers and their ilk couldn't make buckets of money from putting people on disability, they wouldn't go near social security, nor would they give a damn about people who are in legitimate need of this kind of program.

It certainly helps that they change people's perception of being on welfare to suit their goals as well. It used to be a stigma to be on welfare (or 'the rack' as it was once known) and it was considered shameful to have to take the government's money. This way, folks didn't try to stay on it longer than they had to. Now people have made it almost a positive notion to be on 'disability'. Almost makes it seem like it's honorable to take money from social security for having an affliction that millions of others probably have, but are still able to work.

The keywords are: affliction, stress, incentive, drive, disability, well-being, and perception.

This episode on Trends and Benefits is very interesting to me in many ways. During prologue, they introduced many interesting facts such as 1 out of 4 Americans is disabled. By disabled, they mean that people can’t hold the jobs and they are taken by the government including health care. Plus, right now there are about 14 million Americans receiving payments from the government and this number is growing fast regardless how well economy is doing, or how many technology advances we came up with. There are still numerous people apply for disability each month. Some people are faking to be disabled. This is make me angry for the people that are actually disabled.
Disability is just a made up concept. Disability is just a label society stick to people when they hear the story and think that they were suffer enough. It is not fair. But it is confusing by who decided the condition. Some people have the same problems, but still have to go to work. For instance, Dr. Timberlake in Alabama is recommended very person to be on disability and asks his patient weird questions that are not related to medical. The author explains that Dr. Timberlake sees it as with low education so they can’t function, so he fills the paper works out for his patients. Some people were not so desperately in need for the welfare problems, but they were still on the programs.
During her research, Chana Joffe found out many interesting facts about the work force in Alabama. There are actually no jobs available for the poor and low education. Plus, businesses closed, many people lost their jobs. Everyone else had no choice or wanted that choice will not get out of the programs unless they get old and move on to a different programs or they die. It is difficult for people to stay healthy and well-being in the depressing environment such as Heal County Alabama. It is more because of the government did not expect the programs will get this bad.
There are lawyers that work for disability. There are such as billboard, youtube, radio, etc. The way that government set up the welfare program as paying lawyer if they are willing to stand up for the poor. But most of the clients are the people who got denied when they applied for the first time. There are many shocking facts about lawyers making big money and moving people into disability programs without any strict tests. The government never in the hearing to hear about the situation. Just like Bill Clinton, who turned welfare check into pay check with the help of the states. States got incentives for bringing out the program.
I personally think that disability programs are great programs that will help people. However, I do think that there should be some strict tests before agreeing to put somebody into the programs. Because many people are not desperately in needed of the programs. There are many people are not motivated to work, they are just lazy to work. Some people don’t even have diagnostic problems to receive the programs. The government should also establish rules on the company that are moving people into the programs. Those company who made up fake applications for the applicant, and got pay when a person got accepted. More to that, the kids are on disability programs are even worst than adults. The kids only prove that they are mentally and intellectually can’t do well in school. There are kids that can do well in school, but they can’t do well because they might lost their fixed income every month from the government. Kids should be going to school, parent should want children to do well in school and kids should get independent as they grow up.
terms: Well-being, disability, health, diagnostic, motivate, mentally, intellectually. .

The week’s blog is from a radio post about the number of people in America receiving federal disability and not working. I thought the radio post was very interesting and a new topic for me to learn more about. The prologue talked about how people who are on disability get paid to not work, and get free healthcare benefits. I didn’t realize how many people were actually on disability, which I, and the rest of the working class are paying for in taxes. I think numerous people are using their disability because they actually need it, but in many cases, I think many others are only on it because they don’t want to work or have the motivation to find a job.

In the post, the woman researched disability rates in a small town in Alabama were a fourth of the town was living off of disability funds. After hearing how many people are not working, I honestly wonder how the town is surviving in that economy. With no one working, the town is getting next to no income. The people of the town had many theories as to why this is happening throughout the country. If I had to guess, I would say many of the people are faking the severity of their disability to get money. Some people interviewed for the research said they were on disability for things such as high blood pressure or diabetes. The post talked about how the term disability is “squishy”. One question brought up was, who determines whether or not an injury is severe enough for disability? There is not a test that tells you whether or not you’re unable to work. Any, and all medical problems are accepted for disability, which is a problem, because many f these people can in fact still work. Although, if I knew I could get free money without working, I would totally take that offer. The money is the incentive in this case. People don’t have the drive to work for their money anymore, if it’s free, why go to the trouble of finding a job? There are many other theories from people of the town. The major one was that people were faking their injuries, but also that they were eating an unhealthy amount of fast foods, or because there was too much drinking and smoking going on. When talking to Dr. Timberlake about what he thought about the rise in the number of people on disability in the town, he said he believed the reason was that people couldn’t find jobs. This theory was very fascinating to me. His reasoning was that many people of the town did not have a great education and there was not a good selection of jobs available in the town. Dr. Timberlake says that some people are not educated enough to function or hold down a job, not because they physically cannot do the work.

This radio post really connected with my life and made me think about disability from a different point of view. My dad is currently receiving some kind of payments for disability. He played basketball in college and has been in the military for 30 years, which has put a tremendous amount of stress on his body. Although he is getting some pension from his disabilities, he still works everyday. Listening to the radio post made me really think about his situation. Although he is in so much pain, to where he should not have to work, he continues to go to his job everyday. I have grown up understanding that working is part of life. If I want something I need to work for it, and I need to have a well paying job when I’m older. I think that people on disability, who do not need it, are just looking for an easy way out. The post talks about when being on disability, you only get a monthly check and free health care. When someone can’t find a job, they think it is alright to fall back on disability. Disability is not like a safety net that helps you on your feet and assists you in find a good paying job, it is a life-long commitment in a way.

Overall, the radio post was a very interesting topic and really went along with chapter ten on health and well-being. I learned a lot about disability and the rising number of people using it, as well as the rising problem this is becoming in the country. After listening to the post, I believe that there must be a better way to determine is someone is well enough to work to support him or herself. I think too many people are taking advantage of disability to a point where the economy is suffering.

Psych Terms: disability, motivation, theories, incentive, health, well-being

Trends with benefits was a really interesting episode to me. I had absolutely no idea that there were so many people abusing the disabilities act. I also was really shocked and interested about the town in Alabama that supposedly has ¼ of its population on disability! How does that even happen!? That is absolutely crazy to me. I was also really surprised at how hit and miss it seems to the people applying for disability, like some people that actually deserve it and have a legitimate reason for being unable to work don’t qualify then others who are lazy and have dumb excuses can get it easily. I feel like the government needs to make a strict and constant set of standards to determine whether or not someone qualifies for disabilities or not. I have worked with people with disabilities for a couple of years now and most of the individuals that I have worked with are legitimately disabled and would not be able to hold down an actual job. There have also been multiple times when I found out a certain consumer did indeed have a job and I was shocked at a lot of them. But I was so impressed by the fact that a lot of the people I worked with had jobs even considering their differing disabilities. This makes me kind of mad considering how many Americans get paid for disabilities when they are plenty capable of getting a job, often times they are just too lazy and unmotivated to get one.
I found the part about children with disabilities very interesting too. The mom that was interviewed in act 2 did not even have a job, her and her son lived off of his disability pay and her savings account. I feel like this is becoming a more common issue nowadays too. Parents find out how easy it can be to claim your child has a learning disability, and get money monthly for it. I also have heard a lot of controversy about families that adopt multiple children with disabilities, arguing that these parents just do this to get money from it. While I am sure there are many cases where this is true, which I find so sad for those kids, I also know of multiple families that do this and genuinely care about their kids and put the disability money where it is meant to go, towards the wellbeing of the kids; often times it pays for their daycare or group home or whatever.
So overall after listening to this show, I would definitely say that the government needs to set up a way to determine whether a person actually is incapable of having a job due to their certain disability, or whether they are just lazy and wanting to live off the government.

When I was listening to this radio show, I was disgusted because the government is giving these people that are filing for disability a $1,000 a month. I was disgusted because there are people out there that fake their injury, and then take money from the government. I think it makes the people that are actually hurt look bad, like the man that broke his toes and vertebras, and went through a fence, and was a complete mess. People like him that actually can not work because they were actually injured deserve the money because they can not work. The people that do not want to work and want to be paid for doing absolutely nothing are the people that disgust me.
Then when Ethel was talking about how she filed for disability for her back, I thought she was a faker, but then she said that she did not know any other job than the one sitting at the desk working with the people filing for disability because she just has never seen one. When Chana thought about it, she looked around the town and noticed that there are only jobs that require you to stand or lift heavy objects, and the job that filed people for their disability. The new theory that they have is that places/towns do not have a lot of options for people to get jobs when they are only restricted to doing things like standing for a long period of time, or lifting heavy objects, so therefore they can not work and take the governments money. Ethel’s husband’s hands is why he is on disability, and he said that he can not get a job here that you do not have to use his hands. She says that living in a poor community and economy and having a poor education is a disability itself.
It’s spreading around the world that small little towns and big cities are in a poor state and have a major employer close down. I know from experience of living in a small town, and having a big industry plant where everyone works just shuts down because the economy is poor. There are a lot of people in my town that are having to start over at some other place, and maybe not being able to make as much as they were making at the plant that got shut down. This all could harm their well-being and make them very stressed.
Scott was a man that got told, by a place called Work Source, that no one was going to hire him so they were going to “hide” him and told him to take all the money out of them that he could. He then had a heart attack, and he eventually got taken out of that mess, so he could just file for disability.

Terms Used: stressed, well-being

In this video, Chana went to talk with people in Hale county where one in four adults are not working due to being disabled. Most of these disabled people in this county don’t have in my opinion good enough reasons to be living off of the government. There have been multiple times when my dad would come home and have back and neck pain but he gets up the next day and goes to work because you have to provide for your family. Some people are too lazy to get up and go look for jobs and put effort into finishing their education. Forteen million people are disabled and most of these are those people who complain of little pain here and there. I do think, however, that there are people who really are disabled. One of my dad’s good friend’s worked on the railroad and ended up breaking his back leaving him paralyzed from the waist down and is in a wheelchair. This is being disabled. Just because someone complains about pain doesn’t mean they can’t get up and work like everyone else. If everyone were to get disability from the government for back, shoulder, or neck pain probably most americans would be on it if they could. Also stated in the video, 250,000 people are disabled each month and 150,000 jobs have been created each month. In hale county, the same doctor was telling his patients to get disability but first he asked them what level of education they completed. He took in consideration how much education they to help determine if they should receive it. I think this is ridiculous because a person can always go back to school if they really wanted. I understand, however, that some people can’t afford to go back to school but instead they can save up as much money and take out loans and eventually work their way up to completing a proper education. I think some people spend their disability money on things they don’t need like cable, internet, alcohol and the list goes on. A man in the video talked about having high blood pressure and diabetes and he signed up for disability. I know many adults that have both of these and that doesn’t stop them from working a nine to five job. I think in some way, these people want others to feel sorry for them and they more than likely do not want to work for anything instead they want everything handed to them.

I feel as though the topic of disability and welfare is always a very sticky subject. I think that a lot of feeling can be very hurt, and people can get offended easily. Because of this I think that when it comes to the topics of welfare and/or disability there is not black and white areas, and in fact there are grey areas and one answer is not necessarily right or a quick fix to the situation.

When it comes to the topic of disability I think that whether or not I agree with it varies. I think that there are people who become critically injured throughout their lives and are unable to do any or their original job because of theses disabilities. However, with that being said I also feel as though there are people who are injured that may not be able to do their original job because of their injuries, but they are still able to function enough to another job and just do not do so. I can understand that someone who has done the same trade or profession for years may not have the skills needed in order to jump into another job, but in my opinion, I think that our government should work harder at finding that individual adequate work that they can do, so that will not need to rely so much on the government for money, and even more importantly, they will maintain their self worth by having a job and responsibilities.

When it comes to welfare I believe that it is a subject that is very broad and there are so many opinions on the topic. I think like any other type of assistance, there is always room for people to abuse the system. And as long as there are assistance programs out there, people will abuse it. However, I think that the system we have set up now will not help people to stray away from abusing the system. I think that people who receive certain benefits or money from the government are not given an incentive so that they would not want to strive to be more independent. Right now someone who receives money on welfare make just as much if not more by not working as they would by working a minimum wage job. Although the "right" thing would be to accept whatever work you can get, many people know that they can receive just as much if not close to as much money by doing nothing so that is what they choose to do. I think that there should be an incentive program in place so that it can motivate people to get off welfare and take on their own independence. If we give people no reason to get off easy assistance than the reality is they wont, but if we give them a reason to, then they will.

I think that this topic is super controversial and there is no right or wrong answer. In my opinion I think that innovation and constant review and change is the only thing that will work with our ever changing world.

Psychological Terms: Welfare, Disability, Incentive

According to the episode on This American Life this week, nearly 25% of people in certain population are not working due to a disability. Therefore, government checks are given to 1 in 4 people who are not working. This research made some people very angry. There are apparently lots of theories behind the amount of people not working. The numbers are growing for the amount of people not working due to a certain disability. However, there are services and facilities to help those with disabilities get back on their feet and earn a living. The reporter in this segment stated that many people are not taking advantage of these programs to get better. It seems as though they are taking advantage of the government. It is as if those with disabilities seem to be “giving up” in the workforce.
I am conflicted when it comes to this type of issue. My parents are both employed, they have always been hard workers, they save all of their money that they earn, and they are both contributing members of society. Therefore, I have not been exposed to a world that relies on the government for money. I have heard of this rising issue more and more every day, though. From what I understand from this report, I feel that some people claiming to have disabilities actually are able to work again, but they rely on the government to send their disability checks in the mail. This issue made me think of food stamps. Some of my friends work at grocery stores, and I have heard several of them complain about adults taking advantage of food stamps. Rather than using the stamps on necessary items, like fruit, milk, vegetables, etc., they are buying alcohol, candy, and junk. I want to emphasize that many individuals do not take advantage of food stamps, but some people do use the stamps in the wrong ways. When I hear of this occurring, it makes me think that it is unfair for those struggling with money to be spending government money on unnecessary junk.
As stated earlier in this report, people claim that individuals with disabilities are unwilling to take advantage of programs that will help them return to the workforce. Of course, some situations require permanent retirement from work, and that is absolutely understandable. However, the remaining individuals are simply lacking motivation. This report also indicated that obesity was a major issue in Hale County. The lack of workers and the high rate of obesity in this area are very closely related. This is where chapter ten in our textbooks comes to play. Obesity can be a major reason behind the lack of motivation. People are lacking the drive reduction to go out and work again, simply because their needs are already satisfied through the government. However, this does not seem fair to the rest of the hard-working citizens in society. The bottom line is, it is understandable for individuals who physically cannot work anymore to be using government programs. It is not acceptable, however, when people use these programs as an excuse to give up, when there are opportunities granted to them to get better.
Terms: Obesity, drive reduction, motivation.

Some of my thoughts that are discussed in the first couple minutes are how many people in one state are actually on disability. One in four people in Alabama, according to this talk show, in the working age are on disability. This includes the government assistance of $1000 a month and free healthcare. When they interviewed the 70 year-old man Joe about what he sees in his town he describes it as, people going to the doctor repeatedly, faking injuries, saying something hurts so bad that they can’t work and need disability. If the doctor doesn’t give in the first appointment they keep going back until the doctor will finally give in to the lies. Today there are 14 million Americans on disability and growing rapidly. It doesn’t make sense to me, or many others that with the rapid growth of technology that more and more people keep jumping on the disabled ship. If you have knee pain, there are artificial knees or surgery out there that you can use your free healthcare to get. If the healthcare doesn’t pay for your knee surgery then get a job as a secretary, or someone else who is confined to an office all day and then you can sit on your butt, get paid, stay off your “bummed” knee, and put money back into tax payers’ paychecks who actually work for money.
Disability, welfare, and all these other government assistance programs really irritate me as an American citizen. Back home I work at a grocery store and see those who are “disabled” walk to the door from their car, wander around a bit to locate the electric scooter, and plop right down in it, and drive off. A few minutes later the little old man with a cane comes hobbling in, looks over for a scooter, guess who has it? The lazy son of a gun who doesn’t want to walk. I go over and tell him that someone is using it but should be back anytime. I know this because he makes the drive to the pop aisle, hangs a left to the chips, and then the straight shot to the cookies, and what do you know, checks out. Finally the old man who wears his Vietnam Veteran hat, cane, and in need of the scooter can get off the bench and take the well-deserved, well-needed, scooter.
My thoughts on all of this is that if you can work, then work. Don’t fake an injury in order just to make some money. Every time I get a paycheck a percentage of it goes to all of these other government programs so that people who don’t work can get what they want. It isn’t right to take from those who actually need assistance, or actually work hard to make a living and those who fake injury are basically stealing the money of hard-working Americans.

In all honesty I never really thought about this topic at all. It was never part of the information that I keep on my mind every day. I never really made a big deal about disability because it was never a part of my life. After listening to this episode of This American Life, I began to think about my mother and how she has reached that age where she is at higher risk for problems like back strain, arthritis, heart disease, and other things. My mother is now at risk for heart problems and she had surgery done on her hands due to the strain she put them through while working at Tyson. People like my mother deserve to receive benefits like disability. Something that displeases me and angers me to a high level is when people take those benefits for granted or if they harm themselves due to their poor choices and decisions. Obesity is a serious problem in which people are at an extremely unhealthy weight, but it can be avoided very easily by eating healthy, exercising, and watching your weight. If a person has a disability which they have no control of, such as physical disabilities, nerve damage, etc. People like that deserve to receive disability, not the people who create the problems they have themselves and then expect to receive sympathy and support. A person’s well-being is a main focus in which people look at to figure out who deserves disability benefits. They need to be able to perform simple tasks, like picking up and putting down boxes and standing on the feet for hours on end in order to be considered physically acceptable. There seems to be a lot of negativity towards welfare as well as disability. I was never a supporter of the welfare program because there are many people that take advantage of the leniency in applying for the program. People say they’re unable to work due to some kind of issue, whether it is family members being disabled or they themselves are. A lot of people fake this and try to get money out of the government and succeed in doing so. Welfare needs to be more careful of who they choose to help.

Terminology: well-being, disability, strain

Trends with Benefits was a very interesting show. It talked about how the number of people on disability is rising. Even with many laws such as Americans with Disabilities Act and medical advantages such as knee replacements the number goes up. This is very shocking and leads to the question, “Why?” this is what the episode talks about. There are 2 main reasons, it is easier to get on disability then to find work that would suit people, and there is a rise in the number of disability case trials won and states instead push to put people on disability than on welfare.
The first explanation, it is easier to find a job than to find a job that would fit the people. The people imply there is no job they could be doing that they wouldn’t hurt. This I don’t believe is true. It is true that it is harder to find a job, but in the video the people interviewed seem to not have any clue on what jobs they might be able to do. They get told by doctors in their county that they should just apply for disability, because they have no other option, so they do. I think then once they are on it they get comfortable on it and don’t see a problem with it. There should be time limits or heavier qualifications and explanations for disability and to get on disability.
The second explanation was more political. First there is a rise in disability trials that get won by the person asking for it. They hire lawyers that to get enticed to counsel these people have government incentives to do it. They get paid if they win by the government and lawyers have taken advantage, which is fine, but the incentives did not see this big of an issue. Then when they get to trial the one who represents the government is also the judge is somewhat weird. The judge then is put in a tough place to make a fair judgment. This would be a tough place to be. This is all just a huge mess that has hurt our economy in this country. I think that this needs to be dealt with and talked about more often than it currently is.

In this episode it was mentioned how disability, by definition is a broad and “squishy” term. It is incredibly subjective and what is disabling to one may not be to others. Whether or not an individual considers himself or herself to be disabled is dependent on many factors including their resources, environment, and educational background. So it’s hard to make general decisions on the subject. However, according to the show 15 million people in the country were receiving federal disability at the time of the episode’s recording and that number seems only to be rising, it is obvious that there must be an issue here that needs to be dealt with. Disability and well fare is a multifaceted issue that touches on everything from economics to sociology and psychology. It affects much of life here in America and therefore is a pretty touchy subject among most people.

This episode mostly dealt with trying to find an answer to why the number of Americans receiving disability checks is growing so rapidly and what factors are playing into it. It didn’t outwardly talk about the psychological aspects involved, but while listening I found that almost all of it was connected to subjects that are dealt with in our textbook. Specifically, with the county in Alabama that has such an alarming ratio of citizens who the government considers to be too disabled for work. One in four people of working age in that county are considered disabled and are not working because of it. When citizens started noticing that many of their neighbors were receiving checks from the government due to disabilities that inhibited them from working, many of said disabilities being ones broadly experienced such as back pain, the incentives and motivations for those individuals to work must have gone down, even subconsciously. When a person isn’t feeling properly motivated to do a task (such as work), they will most likely find ways around completing that task.

Something else that comes into play here is the environment, it was mentioned that many of the people in Hale county wanting to apply for disability had low levels of education. Now, instead of getting all riled up and equating their low education level with laziness and trying to find a way out of work, consider the environmental, social, economical and psychological factors that affect these citizens’ ability to finish school. Something interesting brought up in the episode was how the availability of certain jobs affected if a person felt disabled enough for the program or not, this seemed obvious to me. Of course if you are only exposed to jobs that require you to stand all day and you have back problems you are going to feel unable to work a job.

While listening to this episode, I found myself connecting it to the section from our last chapter on how our personalities and emotions affect our physical health. To me, it seems that there must be a lot of cases involved in this issue of the federal disability program that are connected to individual personality/life outlook. Say you are in an accident and are unable to work for quite sometime, you maybe begin to feel poorly mentally as well as physically and your behaviors reflect that, such as eating your eating habits (binge eating-anorexia) and experiencing high levels of stress and anxiety which in turn also effect your heart health. You are physically deteriorating in ways that are furthering you from being able to maintain a job which affects your income, which again affects your mental state – it seems to me a vicious cycle. I would also like to note that those who try to survive off of disability checks are probably considered to be below the poverty line. They are poor, struggling to make ends meet, which puts them at greater risk of mental illness, which according to our book also puts them at greater risk for further physical ailments.

Overall, this is a difficult subject for me to develop a solid opinion on. I did find this episode to be interesting and insightful, though I did find myself disagreeing with how the reporter worded things and approached her research. Specifically when she went around asking people on disability, “Well, did you ever consider maybe having a job that didn’t require you to stand/use your hands/etc.?” I found it insensitive and degrading toward the individuals. What job could that man do without his hands? I’m sure he wished he could think of one, but only having access and resources to a limited job market of course would make that seem impossible.

Psychology terms: disability, incentive, motivation, subconscious, binge eating, anorexia, anxiety, stress

Listening to this episode confirmed many things are already knew, so many people take advantage of the government whether is intentional or not. In the talk show they specifically talked about Hale County, where one in four people are considered disabled. This is absolutely absurd, especially if you consider the fact that being disabled isn’t even counted into the unemployment rates since they are not in the labor force. Channa talked to many “disabled” people from this county to try to figure out why they have such high numbers and she got traced to the one and only doctor in town, Doctor Perry Timberlake. When talking to the doctor who deemed so many in this county disabled she discovered that he was asking people about the level of their education. Many of them had completed high school but few graduated from college. In his eyes, little education and poor job prospects are equal to having a disability. In another instance in Hale County, a woman had never seen a job where people sit down besides in the social security office where there was a lady handing out the disability checks.
All of these things make me really sad and really angry. First of all, it makes me sad that so many people abuse the system when there are people out there that actually are disabled. The people that abuse it give the system a bad reputation (for good reason) and ruin it for the others. But mostly, I get angry because I see people like my mother who works three jobs to support our family. She puts in nearly 80 hours a week, wouldn’t you think that she is in more pain or more disabled than some of the 14 million who receive checks in the mail every month? I can think of one example of a friend of mine who’s parents are both on disability and get workers comp because of their previous jobs and they are only in their 40’s but yet they are still living better off than my family where all of us a hardworking taxpayers, probably paying for their brand new house and cars their driving around in while they waste their days away.
The most flawed thing in the whole episode was the part where our own government had people trying to convince others to go on disability, if the government can’t help itself, then how is anyone else supposed to help or care? The people losing out the most are the hardworking people who pay for those abusing the system.

To me this was very interesting. I got some new information. I never really thought or questioned this things about disable people. If you are disable you get a free health care and a $1000 check every month. There are 1 in 4 adults that are disable. There are multiple theory why that is, the first one is that many of them are fakers they say that there back hurts, the second one is that many of them do not follow a healthy diet, which can than lead to obesity, many thinks that they are not provided with clean healthy water. Many also thinks that they live at a fast pace, they work very hard, they drink and smoke a lot as well. So that could be because of stress. When people are in stress they do smoke or eat unhealthy to cope with stress. So these are the things do not match up for what should be a good and healthy well-being.
The doctor thinks that 1 in 4 people are disable because they can not get a job. I started laughing. Doctor Timberlake in Heale County, Alabama decides the disability based on the patients education level. This should be pretty clear, I mean you are disable or you are not. There is no test that is done to see if a person is disable or not. It is just a label. The government gives fourteen million dollars every year to disable adults. The number of disable has doubled in last fifteen years. This number should be going down, because of all the technology we have today. To make things even worst lawyers and are also helping people get into disability program in a wrong way. This was very socking and is extremely unethical for them to do that. They are doing this to make money. The government created this program for people that are actually disable and some people are taking advantage of this and are abusing it. Even if the government makes it harder to get disability pay cheek, I still think that they will find some way around that and still get money that they do not deserve.
People like Ethal and her husband are not very educated and have not been expose to different jobs that are out there. I do agree when she said that poor education is the disability itself. But I do not think that if you are less educated you automatically should get money, I think that we should educate them and help them find way in life and not just sit there. This is what there kids will see and will grow up like this. So we are not setting a good example for the future generation.

My first impression of this article was pretty negative. My reasoning behind the article being so negative was because that a lot of people abuse being on disability. Its one thing to actually be hurt and not able to work and still need money, but its another thing to abuse this. America has become to lazy and just don't want to work. Its not like the olden days where everyone worked and everyone had a job and worked as hard as they could. The part that shocked me was the part where it said that about 14 million people are receiving payment for disabilities and that the numbers are doubling about every 15 years. That is a lot of people. One part that I thought was interesting was that they don't ever publish the numbers on the news. I thought this was interesting because you would think that you would want to make this information known to other people. One thing that they mentioned was that 1/4 adults are disabled and you know this because think about how far away you have to park sometimes because there are more and more handicapped spots. Disability is so common now unlike it was before. Half of the time you don't even know if someone is on disability or not. There is no diagnosis for disability, they mentioned that the definition is “squishy” Its a label that we give people in our society. One thing that I thought about while listening to this talk show was that since so many people are on disability and abusing the system that they lose the ability to set goals for themselves because our society is becoming more and more lazy. People have essentially because just lazy and don't feel like doing things anymore. People just don't have any motivation to go to work and just expect people to give things to them. Even though there can be other options for jobs with other people, most of the people that they talked to on the show gave her weird looks and just never even really considered it and just decided to give up on work all together.

Some psychological terms that I used were reasoning, abuse. disability, and goals.

Trends With Benefits. This episode was very shocking to me. I say this because it gave me knowledge on how many people are on Disability for the Health aspect and how many people that there are many that are using disability as an excuse not to be able to find jobs instead of finding a job that doesn’t involve using there disabled limb. Some part of me wonders if these people are doing it on purpose or are they trying to find jobs but using disability as a help to keep them stable until there is a job offered. This episode had a lot of statistics to help my argument. In a Hale County, Alabama 1 in 4 people are disabled and because of that their banks are open later the first and third week of each month. There were many things that shocked me like one lady was asked by an interviewer if she could pick a dream job with her disability what would it be, at first it took her a while to think of something but just as the interview was over she said that it would be to sit and read women’s names that don’t need disability income but the interviewer came to a conclusion that the interviewee just said that to make her think that she doesn’t just use disability as a way to get money; all she wanted to do was sit down. An interesting thing I heard was that being poor in our society has become a disability. Bill Clinton hated that people took advantage of disability so he made a statement that in two years 2 million people will be off welfare. In act two they shared a really important part about welfare. There are Disability Lawyers that advertise all over such as on Television, Radio stations, YouTube and many other places, this was shocking. What’s was more shocking is the fact that the government ways the lawyers if they win a case standing up for the poor but technically they are standing up for a person who was rejected disability when they first applied. I think we need to be stricter about who get disability and ask more relevant questions like their well-being, motivation and how they can work without hurting their disabled parts.
Terms: Disability, Well-Being, Health, Knowledge,

This episode of This American Life was a really interesting one, and one that is kind of hard to comment on without people becoming upset, but this is how I feel about it. One, it’s very unreal to me that there is a Disability program like this available. There are many people who have high blood pressure, back problems, diabetes, etc. that work for a living instead of getting put on disability. Disability is a program present in Dale County that represents ¼ of the population. The program pays $1000 a month and receives free health insurance, without having to work. Even though some of these people may want to work, for example the men who worked at the mill that had closed down, they choose the route that gives them around 12,000-13,000 dollars which is only a couple thousand dollars away from a minimum wage job. I don’t agree with this program because of the fact that there are others who actually have serious, physical or mental disability that makes getting a job close to impossible, but others use it simply because they want an excuse to stop working. There were many people who had opinions on who gets put on disability and why. Some say they are faking it and others have some sympathy because of their past mistakes, like smoking or drinking, has caused them to be incapable of working. The lady who said that was an excuse, her husband chimed and to that he stated that many people have done those same things when they were young outside of Dale County and are working just fine. Many of the people in Dale County who apply for disability see Dr. Timberlake, who asks them “What grade did you finish?” This, to me, was an odd question, but Timberlake uses it as a disability because without a degree, you are incapable of getting a good job. Which yes, is true in most cases, but I feel as though instead of rewarding them with money for not finishing school, a better plan would be to create a system to help them either get jobs or try and get them back into school. Another question Timberlake asks is “What exactly is painful to you?” From there, if he considers it a major problem that allows them to be incapable of working, like back problems for example, he puts them on disability. Chana Joffe-Walt interviewed a woman who is on the disability program because of a physical injury and when she asked the woman about trying to find a job with no physical labor, the woman said nothing. That, to me, seems as though the woman is happy with not working and yet still receiving a monthly check.
Another problem I had was when it was brought up that the disability program has made kids scared to go work. There was a 27 year old who lives off of disability checks but had a small side job tutoring, but when the government saw that she had brought in extra income, they lowered her check. Immediately after she saw that, she quit her tutoring job because of the anxiety she encountered after that lower check balance. To me, the disability program is making kids and even adults lack any motivation to work and provide for themselves, and that is very upsetting.
The psychological terms I used were: disability, obesity, anxiety, and motivation

The episode that I listened to was about how many individuals are getting disability and it is unknown as to if they should be getting it or not. My thoughts on this episode are all over the place. I think this has been an issue that has been going on for a while and people are just now either noticing it or just not caring to speak up and say something. I think that there are many people that falsely use our government system to get disability. Many towns all over the country are just like Hale County where most of the people are getting assistance from the government when they don’t really need it. When people misuse the system like people in Hale County then I feel like it actually takes away from the people that need disability. Most people like in Hale County are just lazy and don’t want to do anything for themselves. I think they feel that the economy is not good and it is hard to find a paying job that gives them the amount of money or benefits that the government can give them.

On the other hand, I do think that there are many people that are not capable of working because of disabilities that are not noticeable. I think people that have disabilities like learning disabilities are the ones that should get disability because it is something that are out of their control. They would not be capable of having a normal paying job. I really was not aware of how many people were actually on disability. Every 1 in 4 in Hale County is a lot of people to me. To make matters worse, this is not the only county that has encountered such a high number like that.

What I think is that people should have to go through some type of physical or mental test to prove that they are uncapable of holding a job. I also think that the government should not just grant them the disability so easily. If I were the judge, if you could walk, talk, and add up numbers and read and right then you would not be getting disability. I don’t think that people should get disabilities because of minor aches and pains. I think that is life and they should be able to deal with it. I actually don’t blame people for being on disability. If the government says they will pay for you to do nothing and pay for your health care while you sat on your butt all day then why not take it? Yes a good moral person wouldn’t do that but everyone in the world isn’t moral. They have too much trust in the citizens to tell the truth and to be honest about something so minor lie if they can work or not.

For this assignment, we were to watch another episode. This episode was hour our disability and welfare systems work in America. Towards the beginning, it focused on a town in Alabama. Everyone in this particular town was labeled as being disabled and that they were all receiving the disability benefits. Another country that was mentioned in the episode was Hale. Hale is country that has around 20 to 25% of its people on disability. I mean I do understand that there are people out there that are struggling day by day to get food, but then there are also those people that just take advantage of the program. As you can tell, I have mixed emotions about this subject. To get on disability, one must prove that the disability is preventing them from obtaining a job.

Back in the olden days, you hear that people worked all the time. They worked hard enough to support their families. People today tend to be more lazy. In the beginning, when they interview the older couple, they said that the world is much different today. I totally get they should be receiving the disability, because they put in the time and effort. They also did the work that they should have never put their bodies through.

One of the statistics that jumped out at me the most was that, every month there are 150,000 jobs that are being created but at the same time 250,000 applicants for disability are received. The unemployment rate is quite high. Actually its higher than what we all think. The people that are on disability actually do not show up on the unemployment. Those people that are on disability that shouldn’t be are taken advantage of us that do work. We work hard just to pay to suit their needs

Personally, I think they need to have better or tighter restrictions in order to receive the benefits. The well-being of the country is going down. However, the numbers increase nearly double about every 15 years. That is crazy! I think the government needs to do something before it becomes an even larger problems for the future generations.
Terms: Disability, welfare systems

For this blog post I listened to This American Life episode #490 entitled “Trends With Benefits.” This episode talked about how federal disability payments have almost doubled over the last 15 years. The episode began talking about a town in Alabama where 1 in 4 people are on disability. These people are on disability for reasons such as injury, but some think there is more to it. Many believe that a lot of the people on disability are simply uneducated or suffering from obesity, or are just plain lazy. It has been a big problem for a long time now and doesn't seem to be getting any better.
In my opinion, although many people on disability actually need it, many of them don’t. I think some people have started to confuse pain and injury with stress and lack of motivation. Maybe they really are just to lazy to work and become to stressed from work. The stress on some of these people may be high because they are living from check to check off of the government. This stress could effect their overall well-being and make the situation even worse. I think people need better proof that they are actually in need of disability because these days people have found many holes in the system which opened up many opportunities to live off of the government. In my home town I know arrests have been made because people were caught collecting disability while still holding down a job. That kind of thing is uncalled for. If people are able to do that then laws concerning disability may not be strict enough. Another thing that comes to mind when pondering this topic is the amount of money people on disability receive. I don't think people receiving disability or ANY kind of money from the government need any more than they absolutely need to live.
I just have a hard time siding with people on disability because I really don't think there is ever a need to resort to it ESPECIALLY for a long period of time. If you are in desperate need to make money I'm sure there are plenty of ways to go about it. People work out of their home sitting in an office chair every day. People attend college online in their PJs every day. There are ways to get it done! These are my thoughts after hearing episode #490 of This American Life.

Terms Used: Disability, Obesity, Stress, Motivation, Well-being

I am very opinionated about this topic. It rubs me so wrong, probably because of the way I grew up. I know I’m not the only one to think this way either. Granted, for people that legitimately and physically cannot work, this is okay. But for all of the lazy people that decide they don’t want to work at the job that they are at that moment because they are “disabled” from some bullshit excuse is bullshit in itself. In the prologue they talked about how there are fakers everywhere, they go to the doctor and complain about their so called pain that is restricting them from working. One lady in Act 1, when she was asked what her dream job was that she could do without her back hurting, she said she hadn’t even thought of that idea that there could be another job out there. These people that are put on disability have a sense of laziness to them. In the prologue they stated that there are 100,000 new jobs each month, but there are still 205,000 people applying to get disability checks each month. What is this? And that is adding to the already 14 million Americans that are receiving disability checks each month, averaging out at $1,000. I suppose this is such a heated topic for a few reasons. My family grew up surrounded by sports, where you were bound to get injured and have physical health problems, but we fought through the pain. We would play that next volleyball game and not complain the whole match, or my brothers would play that whole next Friday football game without a complaint during the game. My boyfriend’s dad’s ex-girlfriend was on disability. Every time I would come over to their house, she would be sitting down watching a soap opera. I had normal conversations with her, she never showed any mental disabilities. She sure didn’t show any physical disabilities; she would do yard work, clean, cook all when she needed too. There was nothing stopping her from going and getting a job that she could do with her “disability”. She was a faker that is all too common and angered me every single time I went over to his house and saw her sitting on the couch, watching his dad struggle to put a decent meal on the table for her un-working self and her lazy son whom also could have gotten a job but didn’t. They didn’t have any motivation or ambition to do anything that was considered a “job”. I feel like there were no goals present in her life besides just to get by and have her boyfriend of the time struggle to pay for her.

As it went on in Act 1, with the older man that couldn’t work because of his hands, it came clear that the ones that actually need disability checks were people like this man. He was poorly educated and living in a rough place of a poor state. His hands were physically incapable of use, and they didn’t smash grapes around their town so he literally and legitimately could not work. In his case, disability systems are a good thing, but not for all of the lazy fakers. Qualifications of disabilities should be renovated and made more strict, so not just anybody and everybody can get these monthly checks. And I realize that there are possibly no jobs that actually disabled people can get because of technological advancements that have been made, taking away small jobs that these people, at one point, could have gotten.

Terms: motivation, ambition, goal, disability,

My thoughts on the listening we had to do are what I believe in personally and what my family taught me growing up. My mom has been a role model to me because she has a disability and you would never know she had it. About twelve years ago or so she had a major back surgery where they went in from her stomach and put in a metal plate in her back. She was working at a factory and that is what caused her back to be so bad. She could have given in to the disability she had or she could suck it up and deal with it and make the most of it. The doctors told her that she could risk more damage if she did not take caution. She took caution but my mom is a very out-going person who hates being inside doing nothing. She was back working in the factory within only 6 months of her surgery. She could have quit just because she has a disability but she didn’t. That is why I believe that people misuse their disabilities just to get out of work. I think that many people do have disabilities that they physically can’t do anything about and they can’t help it. Then there are those people who just are plain lazy and will do anything to do nothing and get paid.
I think that people can avoid their disabilities too. If they focus on the well-being of their body they can avoid some disabilities but not all. For an example a disability that can be avoided and one that can’t is diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is most cases can be avoided with healthy eating and exercise. While Type 1 diabetes cannot be avoided. My girlfriend has Type 1 and she doesn’t consider herself as disabled. She plays a sport in college and still maintains healthy levels of blood sugar. Too much stress could lead to disabilities but if you can control your stress and learn ways to deal with it then it won’t be a problem.
Key terms: well-being, stress, disabilities

This episode of This American Life radio show was very interesting to me. I didn't really thought about disability before I listened to this episode. I'm not sure how much people in my country get when they have disability but I'm sure that it is much smaller than $1000 each month plus health care expenses. This amount of money people with disabilities get in US, no wonder that the number of unemployment due to disability is growing dramatically over the years. The fact that in Hale County, Alabama 1 in four working age people are not working shocked me. Moreover it is not only one city like that; there are more towns over the country. The memorable part from episode was that we do not have any medical criteria such as blood pressure, that people can go through and it will show if this particular person are disabled. People are deciding by themselves to apply for social security program and get money for staying at home. There is no diagnosis called disability. The numbers of people have been applying for disability program is astonishing. 250000 people each month are applying for disability. Is that really so many people are not healthy enough to work?
Although they are a lot of people with serious health problems that cannot work and totally deserve this program, some people are just want to be disabled because it is easier way to survive. Moreover there are people with physical, cognitive, emotional, mental and sensory impairments are deciding to work. For example, there are a lot of special programs that helps blind people perceive information, so they have chance to work. Work is one of the important social aspects in our lives. We earn money; find friends or just having social interactions with other people. For people who prefer being "disabled", it may bring more negative consequences. For example, the chances of getting major health problem such as obesity increase, which may lead to more serious physical and psychological consequences.
However, some people applied for disability not because they are lazy and do not want to work or cheating, because they cannot get a job. These kinds of problems are common nowadays. For example in episode, where small town such as Aberdeen in Washington state lost its main industry (mill) and people are get faired. Even there are lots of retraining programs and agencies; people have small possibility to find a job. Scott from the episode was older than 50 or something and he lost his stable job. One of the workers from retraining programs said to him that nobody going to hire him and they are just hiding them. He get heart attack after closing a mill and so he had chance to apply for disability program. So he doesn’t need to worry about this problem. Thus, people sometimes just have only this option.
On the other hand some people are making big money on disabled people. Disability lawyers with clear slogans “get the money you deserve” are helping people to get disability benefits. They do it not because they are so kind and want to help people with any kind of impairment. They are doing it because they are money from that. Also in courtroom there are no government representatives on the other side of the room, who will the public interest. Lawyers are making money moving people onto disability. Also there are other parties who are making money on people with disability; public consulting group is the company that offers welfare to disability services. They identify people who have criteria to being labeled as a disable, and then they help these people with preparing all medical documentation for applying. Every time they succeed in winning a client disability, PCG get money. This is huge business which progresses rapidly.
Disability programs become major problems and country spend huge amount of money by paying people with disabilities. It does not mean that it wrong. It is very good that government care about their citizens, trying to improve their well-being. However they could help them with other ways, for example create more work places so people have higher chances to get a job.
Terms used: Disability, health, well-being, physical, cognitive, mental etc. impairments, blindness,obesity.

10/29/14

This American Life episode #490 called Trends with Benefits taught me many things such as the government, welfare systems, and disability checks. The episode starts off discussing Hale County, Alabama. Here the percentage of people who receive disability checks is 25 percent. These people all receive about 1,000 dollars a month plus health care benefits. Different people have different theories for this statistic. Many people in the county believe that these people are “freeloaders”. They believe that they are faking their disabilities to receive the free benefits. “Doctor my knee hurts, I can’t work.” Another theory is that it is hard to find healthy food there. They have got plenty of McDonalds and not enough farmer’s markets. There is lots of obesity in this county. Obesity takes a toll on bones and muscles which makes it harder for them to work. The last theory is that there is only one doctor in this county and is putting people on disability as some sort of scam. However this man is Dr. Timberly and he seems to be a “classic bleeding heart” who just wants to help those in need. He says that he always asks his patients their education level. It is very rare that his patients finish college, let alone high school. This lack of education prevents them from receiving a less labor-intensive sit-down job.

There are currently 14,000,000 Americans who are on disability. This number is growing. This episode tries to explain why. A man named Scott was interviewed. He worked at a large mill in the town he lived in. The mill closed down due to the economy and Scott was left jobless. Scott was a little over middle aged and had not been to school in quite a few years. His options were limited; he could either go back to school, which he hated, or he could “check out” and accept that he is no longer useful to the economy and receive the benefits of disability since he had a heart attack. Scott became “invisible” as many Americans on disability do. This is because they do not show up on unemployment. Disability is not designed to help people get jobs or rehab, rather it gives them a “better” option than working a minimum wage job.

In this episode I learned that the government actually pays lawyers to defeat it in court cases regarding disability. There are many disability lawyers out there. The largest and most familiar is Binder and Binder. Last year they had 30,000 clients. When people are denied disability they seek a lawyer to help them get it a second time around. Out of their 30,000 clients, Binder and Binder made 68.7 million dollars. The question is “who pays for this?” Well, the government does since the person on disability cannot. So the government is actually paying lawyers to defeat itself. The government will often get defeated easily since it does not have a lawyer for itself. Instead, judges have to play a dual role which can be incredibly uncomfortable and stressful.

States also play a large role in putting people on disability. States of course want as much money as they can receive. States have to pay for welfare checks, however they do not pay disability checks. These checks are federal. To save money states will try to get people who receive their welfare checks to switch to a better option for both the state and the people: disability.

I think that the problem doesn’t lie within the people of America, rather that the problem lies within the government. The judicial system in particular should be examined. In court cases where the government does not have a lawyer against a “disabled” person it should. The government of course would have to pay for this lawyer however it seems that in the long run money would be saved because not as many people would be receiving disability checks. I think that companies like Binder and Binder should be targeted in particular. If anybody is taking advantage of the government it is these guys. 68.7 million dollars they made last year out of the government’s pocket. In Scott’s case I feel a bit uneasy. I think that the majority of people in his situation would have done the same thing. He had a choice to make however he took the easy way out. As technology is changing it is going to constantly become more difficult for older people to find new jobs. Many of times these people do not care to learn these new technologies, they just want to continue what they were doing. It is unfortunate that many jobs were lost in similar circumstances due to the economy but I do think that it is important to remind ourselves that taking advantage of the system is wrong. It would have been best for him to try really hard to find a new job, but who could blame him? Maybe it would be possible to have different amounts of disability checks where people like Scott would receive less money and people who literally cannot walk recieve more. Maybe a greater difference between disability checks and a minimum wage job would pressure people into searching harder for a suitable job for them.

Psychological Terms: theory, disability, health, stress.

When I listen to this radio episode, I have thought problems of welfare state today. In this episode, about 1 in 4 people that live in Hale County, Alabama are on disability and the rate in disability is rising sharply. They who are labeled as disability are getting disability benefits, such as disability payments and health care coverage. The problem in this phenomenon is that people are not trying to work hard and get a job, but rely on this disability system. As well as, problem in the disability system is that someone can get these benefits easily by reason of like high blood pressure and diabetes. Of course, there are people that really need this disability system because their body can’t move and they have psychological disorder. However, more people actually are abusing these benefits. If we don’t restrict the system, in the future welfare states will be declined sharply because people are becoming more and more lazy and they don’t have any motivation and goal to work hard in their life, and in the end, this phenomenon lead our economy recession. When I think these problems, this issue is appearing all over the world. In Korea, we also have this disability system and there are people that abuse these benefits. To prevent these problems, the welfare countries need to have strict restriction
Terms: welfare, disability, psychological disorder, motivation

This topic is has been very controversial. Everyone has an opinion about government benefits. There are people who honestly need these benefits because they are not able to work due to their disabilities. And then there are some people out there who do not want to work and want to get paid by the government. As a society, we don’t want to encourage people to think they deserve handouts. Since there is no clear definition of disabilities, it is hard to judge what categories people fall into. It was shocking to hear that 1 in 4 people in Hale County are receiving $1,000 a month. If this statistic was applied all over the United States, we would have more people on disability then people actually working. I think this is a huge problem because we aren’t capable of supporting all of these people. Our economy would collapse. The welfare system needs more of a structure of who is getting benefits, for how long and offering other options for jobs. Since most people will keep receiving disability benefits their whole lives, job training should be offered.
Many of the peoples’ stories that were shared were people who don’t have a higher education and have never heard of jobs that aren’t heavy lifting or have to stand on their feet for hours at a time. And I thought that was really sad to hear. They don’t have any other options but to apply for benefits even if their disabilities aren’t completely crippling. Maybe starting a program that will help educate or help these people find other jobs that they are able to do with their disabilities.
It was also shocking to hear about lawyers and campaigns that are encouraging people to apply for benefits. This is completely not the way we want our country to go. We don’t want more people to be encouraged to get benefits just because they don’t want to work. Especially if it’s taking away benefits from those who actually need it. It’s crazy that this is even legal and something that should be stopped. Overall, this is a problem that has been around for a long time and it doesn’t seem to have an end to anytime soon.
Psychological terms: disability,

Before listening to This American Life, my opinion on our nation's welfare and disability policies was poor. Aftering listening the the episode, my opinion on disability policies is even poorer. I have no sympathy for those who leech off the government. I was not raised that way. I feel in order to get something, you must work to attain it, not mooch off other people’s hard earned tax money. The people on this program are just lazy. They have no interest putting effort into anything worthwhile so they acquire a “problem” and attain disability. I feel that the government must issue drug tests for all funding associated with welfare and disability. I don’t feel it is fair that they can get free money for drugs and have fun all day, while the hard working individuals like myself and those around me must work and in a way, pay for their habits. I am not saying all on disability and welfare are on drugs, because it isn’t true. The concept of disability and welfare are nice, but there are too many patches and holes in the system that scumbags have to take it away from those who are genuinely disabled.

Psychological Terms: Disability, Welfare, Drug

In this week assignment listening to Trends with Benefits on the radio station the discussed People who are faking their own ways to get on to a disability list. When I heard this and like anyone else I became some what upset with the nation and doctors out there who are believing all these lies. Many people who want to be on the disabled list are all doing it for one reason free money with out working. The federal government pays for you to sit on your but so lazy people in the nation take in action of that benefit and use it in a negative way just because they are lazy. These horrible people who my family and myself as well are paying to have them sit at home. These peoples well-being described in chapter 10 have not been met at all. They lack motivation, the act of setting their own goals, and clearly they have some mental problems affecting their health to think that’s an okay thing to do. The reason why this radio talk was brought about is because the amount of disability people found in Hill County where 1 in 4 people have a disability. Just from listening to people who offered to be brought onto the radio I find their slag to become uneducated not fluently finishing their vowels and constants. I know that kind of judging a book by its cover kind of thought but you cants tell me you don’t agree ether. I think the disability list is an amazing federal free money subscriber because there are people out there who need money but can’t work due to their disability. The people who are on that list and don’t need it needs to be caught and filled for a federal probation.

Terms: Health, motivation, goals, well-being, disability

Ricardo Garza

This particular radio episode I found to be very interesting. I say this because I have family members that deal with the topic of disability. Growing up my grandmother and I were walking around the house and she attempted to walk up the stairs but as soon as she reached the middle of the stair set she fell. She broke two ribs and fractured her wrist. She was rushed to the hospital and she was taken care of. But as soon as she was let out of the hospital, she was expecting a disability check, but received nothing. She waited and waited and still nothing. But a friend of my mothers had a torn ligament in her back and she was immediately granted a disability check and she was set for a while. This sort of situation was talked about in the beginning of the broadcast while some people were interviewed about how they did or did not receive disability from the government. Personally I think that there should be an obvious line between whether or not someone should receive help from the government because of an injury.
Along with disability issues, there are also issues regarding welfare that were mentioned in this broadcast. I personally think welfare is definitely a big deal here in the United States. People develop this idea of a poverty line and socially we need to live with this idea. I think that if we develop a better system to help our nation get out of debt, we can succeed as a nation. The broadcast states that as time has passed, the government has not really done much to change and jobs are being lost, but now volunteers go out to help. Lawyers always try to get people to invest in their law firms so that if someone who is disabled will try to go into the firm and make the money that they deserve.
Near the end of the episode the broadcast mentions how people actually survive off of disability checks. These people are basically on welfare and with this check from the government families are able to stay alive. Rather than people who waste the money, some people advocate the idea that disability should be because you are seriously injured. One particular person who was interviewed stated that she actually feared working because of the fear that the government would take away money from her disability check. A person like this woman, usually tend to struggle psychologically. I personally think that this is the wrong way for people to think especially since this economy is struggling. With trillions of dollars in debt, the government needs to focus on who they are giving their money to.

Terms: Disability, Psychological, debt, welfare, investments,

My thoughts on this radio show are a little jumbled and are mostly made up of other questions. The biggest one being: How many people are getting away with this? I understand that getting hurt at work can take you away from work and disable you but I believe that the persons personality is what will either speed up the disability or slow it down. My manager at where I work in my small town worked herself until she was sick for a week and had to have both knees replaced. Is this stopping her? No. Does she think she has a disability? No. She just keeps working even though most days it hurts her. She still lifts things even though she isn’t supposed to. This makes me think that these people are simply just lazy and don’t want to work for their money.
At the same time though, these people have got it all figured out. Even though they are going to live a poor life, they don’t have to actually work for anything. 13,000 a year for doing what? Sittin’ on your ass sayin’ that your back hurts or your hands ache. It made me even more angry when I found out that lawyers were in on this. Lawyers are sharks looking to make a penny anywhere. I believe that the job of a lawyer is to uphold the law and do what is just. So in my eyes these men and women aren’t real lawyers, they are just greedy. They are as greedy as the people who want money for not actually doing anything.
Terms: disability

The topic discussed in this radio episode, Social Security disability, is a topic that I am familiar with in my own experiences. My father has had 5 knee surgeries, 3 shoulder surgeries, has no meniscus and has Hep C. He works 9-10 hours a day, 5 days a week at a feed making plant that requires a lot of manual labor. When he married his current wife, she brought into their family a son. This son's father would not pay child support or even help him out with getting to doctor appointments. Instead, my father and to pick up the slack. The son's father used the excuse that he was disabled and could not do anything and had no money. The problem is he only broke his foot 15 years ago and since then has fully recovered and has received no more injuries, yet he still will not work or attempt to find a job. He says that he has no money to help his kid out yet he goes to the bar almost every night and drinks. The even bigger problem is that my father has tried to get disability more than 5 times and every time he is denied. Why is this? Why does one lazy person who broke their foot 15 years ago get to receive disability benefits while someone who 's body is utterly broken down can't get any? I do not have an answer.
My father, in my min, is more disabled than many people I know who are on disability. Despite this, he has an overall good sense of well-being. He recently quit drinking and his motivation to work has come back. He has also recently gotten a diagnosis from the VA that he has Hepatitis C. This has a big impact on his physiological well-being. He has only a GED and thus cannot get a job outside of the manual labor workforce and because he cannot get disability he has no idea what to do. His health is deteriorating and he does not want to keep on working a factory job to support his wife. The collection of these factors have led to my father becoming depressed and unsatisfied with his life. Due to his recent soberness, I don't want these factors to lead him back to the bottle. I have a high disdain for how the government sees some people, especially when the person is question for disability is a veteran. To me, it is the most disrespectful act the government can do. They are making their veterans suffer while lazy people are getting free money for injuries that happened 15 years ago.

Terms: disability, motivation, depression, physiological, well-being

I was surprised that 1 in four are receiving disability. That number is ridiculous. My first question is how many of these people are really disabled and how many are being just plain lazy. I agree that the environment can help with peoples obesity. In smaller town with not much to do or chances to show off one’s body then they care a lot less than somewhere that has a beach. When all there is to do in a town is go out to eat or get together and eat that is all people are going to do instead of doing something healthy. Disability is a label that we give some people as a form of pity, once we hear their story. I do not see why people handicap themselves because one one minor injury instead of using that minor setback for a major comeback. If we as a society and the government put better restrictions on who is eligible for disability and government assistance. We have so many jobs that are being unattended because so many functioning adults see themselves as disabled.

There are so many older people who get so set in their ways and refuse to go out there and start over. How can someone just so casually tell someone to just go home and accept unemployment or disability. That is coming out of our hard earned tax dollars. I feel like that trainer basically told him go home relax I’ll take care of you.

There is way too many advertisements that loure people into filing for disabilities. Silly enough I have heard of Binder and Binder many times from television commercials. He is responsible for Billions of dollars being distributed in disability aid. The economy needs to make welfare checks into pay checks. I think the states would be willing to help more people get a job if they had to pay for disability services in edition to welfare recipients. The PCG customer service representatives are babying the communities, when you are out in the real world no one is going to remind you to make a meeting, send in your paperwork. or call you and fill out the application for you. PCG is ridiculous, I personally did not know what PGC was until this radio system. I can not believe they are in search for adults and Kids just to make a check. Labeling someone as disabled too early can ruin their future. After listening to this I have just been astonished as to how many people use the system instead of better it. It sickens me to know that this system is being taken advantage of so much.

Terms used: Wefare, Disability,System, Assistance, Government, PCG

I have always found disability payments to be a load of BS. I apologize ahead of time for anything offensive that I may say during this blog post. Now I understand that there are people out there who were born disabled and can’t help it. In these cases I find it less outrageous that our hard earned money goes towards them. However, there is no way that every single person on the disability payments list is truly in fact disabled. I believe that many of them are faking it. Take what Jon Jay said in the prologue, people will repeatedly go to the doctor complaining about some sort of ailment that prevents them from working. They keep on going back until the doctor finally puts them on disability. These so called fakers and freeloaders infuriate me. They take advantage of a system set up to help truly disabled people, not lazy bums who don’t want to work. Also, I don’t believe that obesity should be considered a disability. People are not born fat. Yes, they may be born into a household that consumes junk food and have a higher chance of becoming obese, but they have the ability to change that. It is not fair to somebody who was born without a leg for instance, or two arms that are extremely short or deformed, that a fat bum is to lazy to get off their butt and workout or start eating healthier. It is also not fair to the hardworking citizens of the United States who have to pay for the scooter so that freeloader can make it to the buffet. These people are not disabled, it is their choice to be this overweight. For example, my family and I used to be fat. However, we changed that. We started eating healthier, eating less, and working out more. Being obese is a choice, not a disability. Now I am not trying to single out obese people, that is just the first one that hopped to my mind.
Now, the practitioner who asks what grade they finished or how educated they are should be flat out fired or stripped of his credentials in my opinion. What grade somebody finished is not in any way shape or form a medical question, nor should that count towards being disabled. He also believes that somebody who is not able to get a job classifies them as disabled. I realize why he asks this due to what is on the paperwork for disability, but I still don’t believe it should count towards a disability.
I now understand though why some of these people look towards disability. When she explained how where some people live they are able to go their whole lives without seeing a job that can meet the need of their pain. In this case they feel that disability is the only way out. It is also not totally their fault, in a sense it is the disability programs fault. The program does not help them look for a job or help them in any way except for paying them monthly. I still believe that disability is often abused and is still a crock of crap. However, I can see how people see that the disability program is their only option.
Key Terms: Disability, Obesity, Education, Health

I think that there are people who do need Disability, but I think most probably do not need it. To change that, I think we need to start with education. From listening to TAL, I think that the people in Hale County Al who are on Disability could have had a better life if they had gone to college. College may be really expensive, but if you want a sit-down job, you most likely need to go to college. We need to help people to get the education they need so that the government has to support them for the rest of their life. I think that the government should be spending money for children to go to school all the way through college and even adults to go back to school. College would be a much more economically beneficial way to spend our countries money. Schooling only lasts for a few years, and life is decades of payments. With more education there could be less crime, and maybe even create more jobs. You could create more jobs, because people could create their own jobs from their interests and there wouldn’t be need for some jobs, like nursing, because there would be enough people who have the education. I know that there are people who really do need Disability, because of an actual disability. I think that they should go through more strict regulations to get Disability, and not just say that their back is sore. I know plenty of people who have health problems, but usually they are the hardest working people I know. It is hard to see people who are working so hard in their job and being in so much pain, and then seeing people who do not have chronic pain who are just sitting on their couches and watching T.V. all day. There are people who probably need disability, but are still working and not complaining about how they cannot sleep at night because of the pain. I have worked at Hy-Vee and I have seen so many people who are getting help from the government, when they do not need it. I am definitely not a rich person and my parents are extremely hard working and who are providing for me to go to college. It is so hard to see people, who are lazy who are getting a good amount of money and not actually working for it. A lot of people I know in college come from good families, but most families I know are struggling to pay for college. I think the government should give more money to people who are going to college than helping the lazy people sit around all day doing nothing.
The terms I used were: Disability, needs, and educations.

What are my thoughts?

I quickly glanced at the topic before listening and saw that it was about rise of disability recipients. I have a fairly anti-government political mindset, so my natural first course of action was to go outside and grab my pitchfork and torch in order to properly board on the disability hate train that I thought was about to depart. What came next was fairly surprising. I thought that Chana (weird name by the way… maybe I’ve been in Iowa too long) did an excellent job of reporting on what she found and taking a genuine and relatively unbiased approach to assessing the situation in Hale County. What she found there was not simply lazy people who claim disability so they can get paid to do nothing, but instead was a population constrained by education and opportunity. Yes, there were several people who were definitely beating the system and collecting a paycheck even though they were perfectly capable of working, but there were also a lot of people who actually needed the assistance. The testimony from the man who worked at the local mill (it might have been a mine, not sure) was really interesting. Hearing that he wanted to work if the mill was still open was a surprise. It was refreshing to hear that he tried going back to school to be trained for something else instead of simply giving up immediately. I can identify with his struggle in school and lack of will to follow through, but I think that it is partially due to the fact that disability is so readily available for people like him. While this is just a theory, I think that he would be more likely to endure schooling if he didn’t have disability checks to fall back on instead.

The next interesting part was the Doctor. Chana’s initial description was exactly what I expected of a Doctor that handed out disability; probably some cheapskate who was out to screw the system and be a Doctor with the least possible effort required. Then her interview surprised me. This guy was genuinely trying to help the people in his county. He knew that they could never work a desk job and that this would probably be their only way to survive. I actually put away my pitchfork at this point and started to think that there was a problem in this county that went beyond laziness and lack of motivation. I think that there is literally no opportunity for a lot of these folks. The one lady had trouble even thinking of a job where she would sit at a desk instead of doing manual labor. For me, all I have ever aspired to is a desk job. It is so weird to think that an entire group of people grow up knowing that they will have no opportunities, poor education, manual labor, and eventually disability in their future. What bothers me even more is that I have no idea how to fix it.
Terms: Disability, Motivation, Laziness, Education, Opportunity

This episode was really eye-opening. In the news, I always hear things about welfare and unemployment, but nothing about disability. I understand that there are people would need to be on disability because they cannot physical or mentally work. However, I do believe that there are a lot of people out there who are on disability, and can work. That raises the question, “Why don’t they work?” The answer can be summed up in one word, motivation. What motivation do people have to get off of disability? Sure, they can make more money, but they would have to work a lot harder for it. It would be interesting to see how the person’s highest level of education does play into if they are on disability. If a person has a four year degree, I think they would be more motivated to find a job that earns them more than $13,000 a year. They should have a lot of prospects in the job market. However, if they only have a high school degree or less, they may not have as many options. For them, disability may seem like a better choice. They may not have that motivation to work or even search for a job.
Like I said earlier, my family owns a small business. It is a manufacturing business with a lot of heavy metal and welding. Until last year, we had a man who had worked there for almost fifty years. He would still grind the metal plates, and be all hunched over. He couldn’t walk upright, or very fast. He was past the age of retiring and gaining social security, so why was he still working? They work wasn’t easy, and he didn’t sit down a lot. I was always curious and I asked my dad about this one night. He said that the man needed more money for retirement. He wanted more money than he would get on social security, so he was going to work until he felt like he had enough to live off of.
Is money the only reason people are staying on disability? I think it is a good reason that lawyers are trying to get people on disability. Is there a better way to “weed out” those who don’t really need it? There are so many questions that this episode rose. Now I just have to know more.
Terms: motivation, disability

After listen to this episode of radio blog, Trends with Benefits. People are rely on the whole welfare system way too much. The social security disability program is making people become lazier day by day. Let’s think this way, why would you go to work when there a welfare program that have been provided by the government for disabilities people who cannot go to work and earn the living by their own. People would fake disabilities to get to that welfare program where they get money from the government and they do not have to work to earn that money. All they do is to sit around at home and take the advantage from the welfare. Most of people in Hale County are having a poor well-being because they do not get enough of physical activities where they get a job and earn money by their own hands. People would prefer a job where they get to sit most of the time that they are at work. People are lack of motivation for physical activities are often have an unhealthy life with a high chance of obesity. It is hard for people to get out of the public assistance program once they get into it.
Terms: well being , motivation, healthy, disability , obesity, physical activity

Trends with benefits
What is happening to the world that we live in? Where is the motivation to do better, to not give up? Frankly, this show upset me. This specific topic on This American Life was extremely alarming and is predicting a downturn in the society. Our society has become one that has settled with sticking their hand out for help, rather than helping themselves. There is obviously a point where a person is seriously disabled, physically, and cannot work, but I don’t believe that being uneducated makes a person disabled. I know from my own personal experiences, too many people sit back and accept something that could be changed.
If I decided that drawing disability was better than actually working for my earnings, my well-being would be seriously compromised. I would not feel any sort accomplishment. The incentive for working should be the fact that we are independent. There is serious reward in knowing that I have made a contribution to society. I understand that there are exceptions. For instance, someone who is chronically ill, bed ridden, or mentally incapable, but I am a strong believer in “If there’s a will there’s a way”. Many people who sit at home become depressed. They have no co-workers to interact with, their health could be compromised from inactivity, and if they are like me, their self-satisfaction wouldn’t exist.
Our nation also has a problem with obesity. Could this be from the result of inactivity? If most of our citizens are on welfare or disability then there are a lot of people who are not staying active. It is an unending cycle. Those who become obese then experience a downfall in their self-perception, which in turn deters their motivation, and motivation to go out and make a difference, like to get a job.
It was disturbing to hear about the judge who experienced a case where a man was drawing disability because he had high blood pressure and diabetes. Those are two “disabilities” that should never qualify a person as unable to work. The court of law is also contributing to an outbreak in this terrible trend. There are lawyers who are fighting for disability against the government. The weirdest part is that the government doesn’t have anyone to represent them in the court of law. The decision making is all put into the hands of the judge. Talk about having stress. The judge cannot judge the opinions of two people like what would normally happen, rather he has to make a judgment against himself and the lawyer.
I don’t like where this trend is going. It is causing bad personality traits in our people, and is costing our nation an insane amount of money. We need an incentive to work, not an easy way out of work. Something definitely needs to change.

Terms: self-satisfaction, incentive, well-being, motivation, health, depressed, obesity

After listening to this I was in total disbelief. Before this I had little knowledge on disability. My grandma almost died a few years ago, they found out she had congestive heart failure. She was no longer able to work, so she was put on disability. I knew that meant that she got about $450 a month to live on (if I’m remembering correctly). I had no idea that 14 million Americans were on disability. The issue with disability has been unfolding for 3o years. There are 150,000 new jobs available every month and 250,000 Americans applying for disability each month! I am shocked by that because you would think that with all the new technology we have such as computer readings for those who are blind, advanced hearing aids for the deaf, hip placements so people can walk, among many other things would make the disability rate go down. 100 of billions of dollars are being spent on this issue and no one is aware. I think people are stating to rely on welfare way too much. I think there thinking is, why work and be successful for myself when I can apply for disability and the government can give me money to live off of. How wrong is that? All those people on disability can’t even look to see how the economy is doing, or being affected. I think by now more disabled would be working. Now don’t get me wrong there are very many cases, such as my grandmas, that you have to be put on disability because it is the only thing you have to rely on. But the people, who just have some weird reason, like their leg hurting and getting put on it because of that is ridiculous. This video has opened my eyes, and changed my view on disability. I feel the people who have motivation, need to get motivated in a better way than relying on disability when there are so many others out there who actually need it.
TERMS: Disability, motivation

After listening to this episode called Trends with Benefits by This American Life I have learned a lot of disability and the disability programs. Listening to Ira Glass, who spent six long months covering health care, talk about what she learned through her experiment, I have many questions about disability. I thought it was very interesting how one in four people who are not working are on disability and how those people are not really disabled. For example, John Jay the mayor of Hale County Alabama says that many of the recipients are on disability because of high blood pressure or they have bad cholesterol. This is not right, how these people are on disability while some like Dane Mitchell, who is twenty three years old, is on disability because he was in an accident and cannot work. After listening to Dane Mitchell’s story and how he got hurt I think that disability needs to get more strict on who gets into the program because people who have bad cholesterol or high blood pressure can still work, they should not be able to get money from the government just because of that. Another thought that I had while listening to this episode was how there are different theories on why people get disability. One theory was fakers, I think this theory is true. For example, in Hale County a doctor was saying how some older people come in and say their back is hurting just to get on disability because they can’t find work. I think that people who cannot find work because of no reason should not be able to be on disability and how they should not fake it. They shouldn’t fake it because they are taking a spot that could otherwise be used on someone who really needs it. Another theory that was said was that older individuals get on disability because they are obese and how it is hard to find healthy food in Hale County. Obesity is a huge problem all around the world and we need to get some type of hold on it to get more people in shape and get them healthier.
In this episode it talked about how disability is growing and keeps on growing. For example there are one hundred and fifty thousand new jobs every month but there are two hundred and fifty thousand people who are applying for disability every month. I think this is ridiculous because there are so many individuals who are trying to get on disability because they cannot find a job, but in reality they are just not looking at the right place for a job. Another thing that caught me by surprise was how disability is the worst welfare there is because there are only two possible ways to get out. The first is if you are old enough to get out and get a new welfare program and the last way is if you die. I think this is insane and I also think that there should not be and more disability because people on disability are poor the rest of their lives because of it and they can never get out unless for those two reasons. In the end I think disability either needs to stop and they need to have better regulations.
Psychological Terms: Disability, Health, and Obesity.

This talk show was very interesting to me. My mind was blown when they announced that 1 in 4 people, or 25%, are on disability in Hale County. What was even more surprising to me was some of the reasons why people are but on disability. The reasons were I have high blood pressure, I have diabetes, or even I have pain in my back and/or shoulder. I thought it was interesting and weird that a lady that was in an accident was put on disability because she has a herniated disc but than the reporter works with someone who has a herniated disc. So why does that lady get unemployment but not the co-worker of the reporter? Everyone who is on disability receives $1,000 a month plus their healthcare is paid for by the government. I believe that disability is both a good and bad thing. It is a good thing for people who have been in accidents like the soldier who was thrown 165 feet from a vehicle with a lot of broken bones but to be put on disability because you have high blood pressure or diabetes is not acceptable to me. I believe that disability has a bad side to it as well because like the man at the beginning of the talk show said he knows and can point out to you in Hale County that are faking disability for the benefits. Why are the people who have disability not being checked on frequently to make sure they are still unable to work? In the interviews with the reporter when asked about their situation they always brought up the name Dr. Perry Timberlake. The talk show said that he is asking people what is the last grade they finished and a few people can say they actually finished high school, but not many, and maybe a couple people can say they finished college. He said he asks his patients this question because if they have a low level of education they are not going to find a job anywhere, therefore they will not find a job. Dr. Perry Timberlake’s theory is: Little education + Poor job aspects = put on disability. 25% of the people on disability are on it because they cannot get a job. People can get a job anywhere; they could work at McDonalds, a gas station, anywhere. These people are just choosing not to find a job when all they really need is the motivation to find one.

A statistic that just blew me away is the number of people who are on disability. 14 million Americans are receiving disability and that number is growing rapidly. But what is very confusing to me is that 150,000 jobs are being created per month but 250,000 people are applying for disability per month. Why? How? The reporter found out that every 15 years the number of Americans receiving disability DOUBLES in size. The last thing that really sticks out to me from this talk show is when asked what her dream job would be so she would not have any back pain, the lady answered she wants the ladies job at the social security office. At first I was thinking yes she wants to get rid of the fakers but no, she wants that job because she gets to sit all day, not for the reason that we actually need.

The psychological terms I used were disability, motivation, and education.

William Thomson
Psych
10-30-14
Wow is all I have to say about this podcast. I’ve always thought negatively about stuff like disability programs and welfare, but now they are at an all-time low. Hearing about the town in Alabama where most of the people are labeled as “disabled” just so they can get extra benefits is awful. They are taking away real opportunities from people that actually need it. That is sickening to me, and that’s not right. I’m passionate about this subject because two of my cousins have spinal bifida. They are in a motorized wheel-chair and have to be fed and taken care of constantly. I love them to death, and that’s why I would never do such a thing like some people are doing. Everyone on disability receives $1,000 per month and healthcare is paid for by the government. You can see why people are taking advantage of the opportunity of getting these rewards. Something needs to change, and maybe that should be the process of labeling someone as disabled. If you even have the slightest suspicion that they’re faking the injuries. Than they should be put to jail, or just banned for life from disability pay. The main examples for people who would do this are people with obesity, people with the lack of motivation, and people who think they don’t have enough money to support themselves or a family.
Some facts that they talk about on the show are shocking. How the government has created 150,000 jobs, but over 250,000 people have applied for disability in that time. Now I know that most of these people actually are disabled, but I can bet that they’re quite a few that don’t really have an injury at all. Another fun fact was that disability numbers are doubling every 15 years. How crazy is that! With the increase in technology and new and improved medication. You would think that the number would be staying the same, or only having a slight increase. I’ve thought that the increase in how long people live now adays does contribute to the number rising also. But for the number to double every 15 years is ridiculous. I don’t agree with that at all.
This is a story of a person who our whole town knows is faking disability. He was in a work “accident” over 25 years ago around the age of 30. He broke his leg and did mess up nerves. The doctor scheduled him to go back to work in about 6 months, but he never did. He still claims to this day that his leg won’t work properly and that the money he is receiving is well deserved. The man goes fishing almost every day during the summer and even has the nerve to go and work out at the fitness center. If you’re able to run on a treadmill, than I believe you should be able to go and stand on an assembly line for a couple hours. My ranting is over, but now you should see how strongly I feel about this topic, and why things need to change.

Terms: Disability, Obesity, Motivation

This week on This American Life we don’t hear very much from Ida like usual. Instead, we listen to Chana Joffe-Walt and her studies on how America uses the disability program. At first I thought that the disability program was just another name for the welfare system, but in fact it’s a program that covers and pays people who are too “disabled” to work. I put quotations around disabled because many Americans take advantage of this. While many could work, they choose not to. When Chana was in Hale County, Alabama asking why there were so many disability (about ¼ of this area was on disability) she found many different factors that played a role. It was surprising to me that it was not just the patient’s fault for going on disability, as I had thought in the past. I figured that we as Americans have just gotten extremely and grossly lazy and just didn’t want to get jobs. No, it was not only the patient’s fault, but their doctor as well! I’ve never thought through the process of obtaining a “disabled” status, but it was no shock to me that those applying need to go see a doctor to determine to get the disability claim. What was shocking was what the doctor in Hale County had to say. He asked non medical questions such as, “Did you finish high school?” This is in no way a medical question and should NOT be a factor in giving a patient disability or not. What I got from this doctor was that he felt sympathy for those in the county who “couldn’t work.” This royally pisses me off. To me you can always find some kind of work. And if you can’t, you move to find a place that can give you work. If you can’t do that then you’re about SOL and should start begging. Unless you are physically impaired and incapable of working then yes, you should get the disability program’s benefits. If you have back pain, though, as many of the people in this county did, you can deal and find another place. But, going off of that, there was another interesting point in Hale County that Chana talked about in Act 1 with an interview with a certain woman who had back pain. During the interview, Chana asked the woman what her dream job would be. The lady responded with wanting to be the person in charge deciding who gets disability and who doesn’t. Why did she want this job? So that she could sit. The woman couldn’t think of any other job where she could sit, and when Chana interviewed the woman’s husband, he couldn’t think of any job where he couldn’t use his hands (he had damaged hands). This is hard for me to wrap my head around: that there are people living in the United States of America who don’t know the different jobs that there are to offer that could not only benefit the work force, but help them individually as people too. Chana says (in her own words) that living in an impoverished area with a poor education has become a disability on it’s own, which to me is very sad.
Not only are doctors and patients to blame, but the government has a big role in giving out disability. First off, we have money grubbing lawyers who can make literally millions off of people wanting disability benefits. Now, lawyers like this only get paid if their client gets the disability “okay” from the judge, but there’s no one in the courtroom arguing against the lawyer. The lawyer, the client, and the judge are the people in the room, and even one judge told Chana that it felt weird not having another party in the room. No one is defending the government, which makes it that much easier for the lawyer and client to win. Now, the part that disgusts me is next. States are encouraged to get people off of welfare and onto disability. When someone is on welfare that money comes from the state. Disability is funded federally so if someone is on disability the state does not have to pay that individual. To me it’s sick that the state would pawn off those who need welfare to the disability program. In this way, the disability program is getting people who don’t need it. They have agencies that go out and seek for people to be taken off welfare and onto disability. In the story we hear examples of what people from these agencies would ask the clients. Some “disabilities” that I heard were things like high blood pressure and diabetes. I’m sorry but people live every freaking day with all sorts of shit like that! Pardon my language it’s just very frustrating to me that that example can be counted as a disability. It’s sick. But to me, that wasn’t even the most perverted thing that people do to get disability benefits. No, the most disgusting thing to me is to use an innocent child to obtain a disability check. From what I understood, if a child is educationally impaired then the parents can receive a disability check so that they can better their life. The sad thing is that so many families “depend” on this check that they keep their kid in the lower education in school so that they can still recieve it! This is just wrong. Parents are holding back the educational potential in some children so that they can receive government money. It broke my heart to hear Jaleel's story. And this wasn’t necessarily a devastating story, but it’s still sad. Chana talks with Jaleel, a 10 year old with a learning disability, and asks him what his favorite subject in school is. Jaleel responded by rattling off his whole day at school. It made me so happy that a child with a learning disability still loved everything about school. The way he talked about it made it seem like school was his favorite place on Earth. Chana then explains that Jaleel could be able to overcome his disability and do well in school without the help of it. To me this seems like a great thing. A child breaking out of his chains that hold him down and set free to excell in his own education. But this wouldn’t be ideal for his family who depend on the paycheck they get for Jaleel’s disability. Now, it’s not the disability that is holding this child back, yet instead his own family. Family is suppose to be a support group. No money can compare to a child’s potential. It’s wrong that money can come before a child’s education. They said that the families depend on that child’s disability pay check, but when Chana was interviewing Jaleel’s mother she said that this was one of her only sources of income. She did not have a job. I really don’t know what else to say except for people who do this to take advantage of the system for the government’s money are some of the biggest pieces of shit that I could imagine. It’s plainly and simply wrong.
The American public and government have perverted the disability program and the way it was (and should be) intended to be used.

Terms: Disability, Welfare, Perverted

I am very shocked at the information that I was just told. I did not realize that this was something that was going on in our world. I think that all of us are so fortunate that we live somewhere that does not have to worry about those types of things. If I think about the areas that this was about I realize that in those areas it really does make a lot of since. The living conditions that they have and the only positions in those types of areas that are available would seem like disability for so many people makes since. I never would have thought that there was a place that nobody knew about jobs were you could sit the whole day. Coming from Des Moines where all these huge insurance buildings are where everybody sits all day long doing their work it is some weird to not think about sit down jobs. I think that for the people that live in these areas that have the high disability rates it is a good thing for those people. It just seems like we need to be doing other things for these people though as if they are on disability they live in poverty for the rest of their life. I believe these people should have the option to move to somewhere that has work they are capable of, or those types of jobs should come to them.
While I think that some people in these bad living conditions deserve to be on disability I also believe that the state governments cheating the system is absolutely unacceptable. The government pushing these people onto disability is a terrible thing as they talked about there are really only two ways to get off disability. When they push these people onto disability we are not helping these people without jobs to be more successful we just teach them to be lazier. This also puts a huge cost on our federal government that is already in a lot of debt. If we were able to get the people off disability that don’t really need it and in to the work force our economy would be so much better off. It is terrible that these agencies that find people that could possibly get on disability are getting so much money for just one person. These people are making millions of dollars for the wrong things.

When listening to act one and two of tends with benefits, I had a lot of different thoughts about the true meaning of disability. Before listening to the act, and I was to describe what I thought disability was, I would say it is someone who is truly affected by either mental or physical conditions that stop people from performing their daily life. Well when Chana Joffe- Walt spent the six months reporting on the rise on disability it made me question what people thought disability was now-a-days.
She was interviewing people with disabilities, that was diagnosed by a certain Dr. She made him a visit, and asked what they needed to be able to be considered disabled. Most of the patients had back pain. Which to me that is barley a psychical condition. Some people are paralyzed, have no legs, or arms, that have no mental function to even move their body, but you have slight back pain. It doesn’t make sense to me. He also said that people with very low education are disabled because they have the inability to work or get a job because half the people didn’t attend college, or make it past the 12th grade.
When I related this part to phycology I thought about the chapter in the book learning. Some people learn better than others. Some people learn better by the standardized test, or others have cognitive learning skills. They learn by their surroundings, back ground, and personality. People with learning disabilities can’t process information, or some may be dyslexic. Dyslexic is getting letters and number mixed up making it hard to read or do problems. The Dr. was assuming that these patients with back pain, also had learning disabilities because they had very little education, so he thought that they would not be able to handle a job.
Chana interviewed Ethel Thomas. She had two jobs, but then she had back pain, and got disability. Chana asked what her dream job would be, and she thought about it for a while. Her dream job would be a job where you can sit all day.
In act two it is related to the disability, but the money part. When people are on disability they can receive money. Binder Binder was to help people that were denied of disability. 30,000 people were denied and this guy helped them get the money they needed. It was like people were living off the money they received. For example a young boy went to school and had a learning disability. His family had little money. The mom had no job, and other children. They got a seven hundred dollar check every month and this is what they lived off of. 68.7 million dollars was needed for disability that year.
My thoughts on that was yes people have disabilities, but some hard not as chronic as others, and people are getting so dependent on the money they get, and Dr. and lawyers will help them with to get the money. It seems selfish, but I get that some people have things wrong with them, but a women was capable of a job, and got some of her check money reduced so she freaked out and quit. If the women can work she doesn’t need the money that actually people need. This made me think about a lot of people to use disabilities to an advantage instead of it being and issue.
Terms: disability, learning disorder, cognitive learning

Listening to this podcast surprised me a lot. It’s hard to believe that there are so many people living with disabilities in our world that we don’t even think of. We don’t even realize how lucky we are to have all the things that we have and that we are much more fortunate than many other people in our world. When I think of a person with a disability I automatically think of them having a mental illness or serious injury. I never really think that there are other factors that could be contributed to having a disability. I know that there are some people in our world that cheat the system and fake or exaggerate having a disability just to get welfare checks and not have to go to work, which is very unfair. We are paying taxes that are going to these undeserving people. I think it is completely wrong that people have the nerve to take advantage of the system when there are families out there that actually need welfare to be able to survive for legitimate reasons.

Before listening to this I have had a slightly negative outlook on the welfare and disability system. This radio episode hasn’t changed much out my outlook but it did educate me as to what is wrong with the system. I grew up in a small town and the only examples I have seen with the disability system is people taking advantage of the system.

I have a membership to the local gym and often times when I go to work out there in a man named Zach lifting in the back of the room. He lifts large amounts, he is very loud, brags about how much he can lift, and he is constantly checking himself out in the mirror. Zach is an overall jerk. I was talking to my dad about him when I discovered Zach was on disability, for back problems! I was in such shock. He couldn’t work but he could cause a ruckus at the local gym. He has supposid back problems but rides his fourwheeler to an intense workout.

I have an aunt who had surgery on her feet. She works long days and spends most of this time on her feet. This pain was legitimate. When she finally got the surgery she went on disability and took a leave of absence from working. This was over a year and a half ago. She is still receiving disability payments. To make matters worse, she doesn’t follow the doctors orders to take care of herself. She doesn’t want to get better, she would rather sit at home and receive a disability check. My aunts well being is fine, she just does not have any motivation to work.

The idea behind the disability and welfare system is nice. But as a society, citizens have taken advantage of it. The lawyers who are working for people seeking disability only get paid when they win a case. Of course these lawyers are working hard to get people into this system. There isn’t a person in the room making the governments case so its really hard to not win the case. The radio show then went on to talk about a company called the PCG. This company does all it can to help people to get on disability. They help them to fill out the paperwork over the phone and see them through the entire process of getting on disability. These employees, just like the lawyers, only get paid when they win a case. This doesn’t seem right for me.

As mentioned in the radio show, people on disability are invisible. They don’t show up on labor force statistics. This is scary for someone, like myself, who is planning to go out in the workforce and find a job. Unemployment numbers are going down but these numbers don’t account for people are are disability. Receiving a check every month without working sounds great but that isn’t exactly a perfect situation. Signing up for disability is signing up to be poor, probably forever.

This radio show really opened my eyes to the problems with the disability system. I do believe that these people are taking advantage of the government but I can understand way in most cases. The economy is changing and education is more and more important to be able to get a job and its hard for some people to catch up. Disability is an out for most people. Personally, I want to work. I like to work and I wouldn’t be happy to live on a monthly check. I now see the reasons behind some of these disability checks and I am more empathic and sympathetic to their situation.
Terms: disability, motivation, welfare, well being, disability

Alberto Sveum
I know some people personally that receive disability. My mother is one of them. Even though she receives disability, she still holds a job as a home health aid. My mother has a few different conditions that contribute to her receiving aid, and frankly, I don’t know how she accomplishes all that she does. While I definitely believe some people genuinely can’t work, I also think the numbers discussed in this podcast were kind of hard to believe. One in four people seems to be an outstanding number to me.

One part of this episode I found interesting was when the fact was brought up that there is no real test for disability, it is only a claim based on other factors. Really, a universal test for disability is probably impossible, just because you can be qualified as “disabled” for a multitude of reasons.

The older man in the podcast talked about the fact that he is 70 and is still able to complete work and he thinks many people are lying about their inability to hold a job. My grandparents, though retired, still do some things just to keep busy. My grandpa is a custodian at his local VFW, not the most demanding job, but it is something. Not everyone that is disabled could perform the actions of a custodian, and based on the area someone lives, there might not be a lot of working options available. I think the government should work to change this, to regulate the job openings for disabled people. I don’t know how this would be done, but I think many people aren’t exactly exuberant in the fact that they must receive government assistance. My mom, for one, despises it.

Finally, I almost found it hilarious that there are people on Youtube that work as specifically disability-claim lawyers. I think the fact that these people are so numerous in amount, I think it said Binder and Binder serves 30,000 clients a year, really shows something. Not that people are lying, but that if you had even the slightest ailment, it is relatively easy to get on government assistance. I think that even a slight deficiency could hinder the drive needed to work. A better evaluation method should be put into place to decide overall well-being and working capacity.
Psychological terms: drive, disability, well-being

This episode of This American Life was very easy for me to connect to because my brother was born with a severe physical disability, no arms or legs. That's a disability that would be hard to fake. The things that makes me the most angry is that the people who apply for disability leave because they are unmotivated lazy and don't want to work. My brother is the most motivated person I know and would give anything to be in the position of a "normal" person. He lives on campus at college does everything for himself that any other person can do, but a person with a "bad shoulder" or something similar are automatically allowed to just sit around and take advantage of the opportunity to be lazy. It makes me sick how people take everything for granted and on top of that try and cheat the system that is in place to help people with real problems who really can't work. My brother applied for many disability scholarships and even to get money for not being able to work since there isn't many jobs that he can do with his disability and the process was much different than what was described in the episode. A lady came and pretty much just observed what he did in a day and to make sure that he was actually disabled, although one look would probably be sufficient. There needs to be a system in place that can separate the people with real disabilities and people who are just to lazy to do something with their lives. It doesn't help that there are all kinds of ads on tv and youtube tell people that they can get them disability even if they have been denied for it. They are able to overturn the ruling by showing that the person has a "disability" and then even more people benefit from the cheating of a system. Granted that there are people that really do have disabilities, there is definitely a large group of people that don't need to be on disability.
Psych Terms: Disability, motivation

In this episode of TAL, the topic is something that is burning up in our American government: welfare and disability systems. I never really have paid attention to this issue or any other political issue because I absolutely cannot stand listening to people argue and talk over one another. This topic is always brought up or bitched about during family get togethers. My family is heavily republican and are more than tired of hearing about people receiving welfare and disability paychecks. I know that obesity was a theory in this, but I firmly believe that it is one of the largest causes of the rise in disability and welfare applications. The reason the majority of those people are in so much pain in just standing is because they are heavily obese and not able to stand like most people to complete a job. The welfare and disability systems are an easy way out instead of trying to get healthy and live a better life.

For me, it is difficult to draw a line at what is disabled or when a person is no longer able to work. I think each case needs to be looked at individual, but there needs to be some sort of more special qualifications and a time limit in which certain people are able to be on disability. Granted, some are too disabled to ever work again, and which case, a time limit would be futile, but if we as Americans are ever going to beat obesity and this freeloading lifestyle, we have got to stop giving free handouts and letting all those around us cut corners. It only creates animosity in our nation and only more rivalry (as if we needed more). I do believe that a disability and welfare system is necessary to for the well being of our nation, however, it should not be so easy as to say “Oh, I have high blood pressure. I cannot work anymore.”

This cutting of corners not only undermines our people and our reputation as a country, but effects the children we are raising today. It shows them that in a sense, they do not really have to do their homework or do their best in anything. Some one will always have your back and you do not have to try at all. A similar situation is that no child is left behind or when you do not have to try out for a team or sport. It is in a sense raising a generation of losers. Not everyone should be on a sports team. Not everyone should be put into rigorous classes in school. Everyone has their own niche and if they cannot find it, then that is no ones fault but their own.

But I do digress, haha. Our country has got to find a black and white line and get all general practitioners and doctors on the same page when admitting people into the welfare and disability programs. We are losing countless dollars that we do not have due to a lack of drive and ambition that founded the country we have today.

I remember sitting in my high school government class senior year and we had a debate on this topic, welfare and mainly disability. The teacher told us what kind of things you could get disability for, he said he could be on it for a few things but chose not to be. He then told me I could qualify for going deaf in one ear and having back problems for an injury I had. I do relate to the back pain they were describing in the piece but I personally do not see a reason for getting it for myself in this time. I thought it was crazy when he told me that because I know I am physically capable of working, so I will continue to work and make my own money.
I think they need to re-evaluate the qualifications of disability. We all have issues, we all have some sort of pain we encounter or conditions like high blood pressure or diabetes. It is becoming more common, so does that mean the majority of America will stop working and receive disability? If you have a disability that you physically aren’t able to work, especially in jobs where you are on your feet all day or things that are hard on your body like construction or having a bad accident or incident that forces you to take time off unpaid at work, it helps out a little giving them some money to get by, in that situation it’s being used what its there for. I think it is a great thing for those who are in need but it is the things like the faking or taking the lazy way out to take advantage of it is what ruins the program and gives it a bad reputation. If people know they just need back pain to get $1000 without having to work then why not take advantage of it, it kills the motivation to make people go out and work which is why people are so against the program. I wonder if they changed the standards to where it would be harder to cheat the system that it would help obesity and laziness, if people were just to deal with it and go to work instead of take the money, I don’t think obesity should be a disability because that is preventable and could improve health and well-being if they lost weight. I don't think something like high blood pressure or diabetes should count unless it would severely affect work, it is so common now in America. LIke they brought up in the show, it doesn't make sense when two people have both conditions, one works and the other is on disability. How would that be fair to the guy who deals with both and still provides for himself and his family? I think it could start a pattern for the next generations, if you're parents learn out to cheat it then their kids might as well as they get older because they might not see it as a problem or see it as cheating since they grew up with it. Hopefully not, but never know.
I was raised by parents to suck it up, so therefore, I am a very motivated person. I am the person that will not miss school or work unless I am very sick. I related to the back pain they described, it hurt to get out of bed every day without crying yet I still got up everyday and did everything I had to get done for that day. Personally I think I became a stronger person and have a stronger pain tolerance from the injury but it annoys me when people have a smaller incident and automatically feel everyone owes them something. After the injury, I don’t think I am a very sympathetic person to smaller injuries either. My neighbor broke her toes and expected everyone to drop everything for her, get out of working and gym class, when I still lived my whole normal life with the most excruciating pain i've ever encountered, to this day four years later it still bothers me, especially when I stood my whole shift at work. I figure if I could manage it as a teenage girl why can't other people?
I know many people who get disability, most deserve it because they are physically unable to work due to circumstances they face medically. The fact that everyone’s tax money is paying for millions of people who don’t deserve it is uncomfortable. In that government, we learned how some people who could really use it can’t get it, which is really messed up if you ask me. Maybe because we live in a different situation than those people we truly don't get it and thats why the government doesn’t restrict much but the fact they know people cheat the system but don't prevent it is what makes people so upset.

This radio show was about how our disability system is a little bit twisted, or even unfair and unethical. After listening to this show, I have to admit that I was a little upset. I did not feel even the slightest bit of sympathy for these people that spoke of their “disabilities.” I know several people who work very hard on a daily basis who have far worse disadvantages than the people who were on this radio show. My dad being one of them. My dad is the hardest worker that I know, and probably ever will know. I live in a very nice neighborhood where there are lots of big fancy houses. With that being said, I also live in a big fancy house. The reason I am saying this is not to brag or boast about the things that I have, but to explain how I ended up having the privilege to have these things. As I said before, my dad is the most hard-working man there is. He busts his ass every single day to give our family nice things, and I am convinced that he will continue to work until he psychically can’t anymore. And when I say can’t, I mean can’t. He will work until his bones are so brittle that he can’t walk. We own a farm a few miles from our house, and my dad farms over 400 acres of land all by himself. Not only does he farm, he has a full time job. He wakes up at 5:00 in the morning, works at his job until 2:00 in the afternoon, then heads to the farm where he works until after dark. After he is done at the farm, he comes home, goes to bed and wakes up at 5:00 to continue with the same routine. The reason I am relating my dad to this radio show about disability is because when I was 11 my dad broke his back. The hardest working man I know, broke his back. He had to have several surgeries if he was ever going to be able to walk again, much less do hard psychical labor. After having back surgery multiple times, he was finally on the road to recovery. During the time of his back injury, it was a very hard time for our family. We could all see the pain in my dad’s eyes, but the reason he was in pain wasn’t because of his back injury, but because he couldn’t work. When he was finally given the OK to go back to work, he was ecstatic. I have never seen someone so eager to work in my life. Eventually, he was back at it, working long hours and hardly having time to even sleep. A year after my dad was back at work, he needed knee surgery. After he recovered from his knee surgery, he broke his wrist. Imagine the stress this put on him. It wasn’t that my dad needed to work as much as he did, but he felt like it was his duty as a father and a husband. After having all of these medical issues, my dad is still the hardest working man I know. Nothing can stop him, and that is why he is my role model. I hope that some day I will marry a man who works as hard as my dad does. So after listening to this radio show, I got upset about the people who take advantage of the disability system. To me, it isn’t fair. Someone who should qualify for disability should have a disability that literally prevents them from working. So in my opinion, having a “bad back” doesn’t qualify. Hell, my dad broke his back and is still working today. I am thankful every day for my dad and how hard he works to give my family nice things. It’s not every day that you find a man like that.
Terms: disability, motivation, injury

Before listening to this program, I assumed that getting put on disability was a grueling process in which some government representative must come and see whether you are truly deserving of disability or not. I assumed that there would be a lot of hoops to jump through in order to get disability, and I also assumed that there are certain definitions as to what "disabled" means. I feel very conflicted about this radio show because a large part of me agrees with the way Dr. Timberlake acted and protected his neighbors. A different part of me thinks that Dr. Timberlake is merely an excellent illustration of how messed up this system really is. It shows how much power single doctors have to change or ruin people's lives. When my grandmother was sick, she went to the doctor in order to get pain medication. After a while, she became used to having the pain meds and continued to refill them. My grandmother's doctor put her on several medications that were completely unnecessary and she ended up dying from complications related to prescription drug addiction and abuse. That's why when I hear stories like this, it makes me wary as to the doctor's intentions. I also really don't like the way getting put on disability has become so institutionalized and normalized to the point where everyone either knows someone who is on disability or is on it themselves. I believe getting disability should be something that is more difficult to get simply because of all of the money being wasted on it annually.

I personal did no think this topic was interesting. Its just another arguing topic that doesn't interest me. I am on the fence about who should get disability and who shouldn't. I know people who are disability and I personally believe they should be working. I also know people who have disabilities and are working. I get stuck how can someone tell another person there not in pain unless there a doctor. If I doctor is telling someone you should be put on disability then you should because that's a medical opinion. But if your a person who isn't willing to go get checked and sits and complains enough to get it then you don't deserves it. I feel like get disability with some people just a matter if opinion.

Key terms: Disability, well being, disabled, welfare

This topic was very shocking to me. I have heard from many people about how there is a large majority of the population that is on food stamps, and feels like they have been cheated in every way humanly possible. This also transfers over into the world of welfare, but what I found to be so shocking was that the crazy density of 1 in 4 people in the town that was mentioned were on welfare. I was amazed because I didn’t think it could even be possible for there to be that many people on disability, who honestly could not work because of something that had happened to them. Obviously not everyone could be that way, and like the show mentioned, there had to be a lot of people faking it, because it was just a better option in their eyes to receive money from the government, rather than work for it. It’s definitely not in my work ethic to cheat in that way. I value hard work, and earning something for what you do, and I find it ridiculous to take advantage of a program simply for being either lazy, or the fact that you don’t like your job, and it’s just easier to get disability than to work. Using the fact that something is “hard” as an excuse really rubs the wrong way with me. I have had to deal with an enormous amount of struggle and pain in my life time, much like a lot of people, and I get very worked up when someone gives up on anything, or simply quits because things got tough. That is just 100% not okay with me, and yes that is my opinion, but I also don’t find it fair for people to take advantage of it because it is in no way helping our government with anything. It’s definitely not helping us pay off any debt either. I think that a lot of this way of thinking has to do with stress, stressors, and coping mechanisms. Because some people are just more resilient than others, and can bounce back from a bad situation, or carry on with their tasks in life more so than someone else. For someone who is not that way, it would be very hard for them to fight through things, especially if they had developed a depressive state where they became sluggish and non-motivated. That would only make disability an easier option to grasp, and therefor would provide a less lengthy goal for someone like that to achieve. All in all I felt like this topic was very interesting, and it was enlightening to hear that there were actually companies dedicated to sifting through files for states to find people who could potentially go on disability to save the state some money. To me that’s very corrupt and just doesn’t sound right.
Terms: Stress, Stressors, Coping Mechanisms, Resilience, Depression

For me social psychology is on one of the most interesting chapters in this book. Our planet populated by over than seven billions of people. Regardless of distance, cultural boundaries, ages, sex people tend to fall in love, make friends, form impressions of strangers, stereotype other people or help them and many other behaviors in society. So this scientific study explain how people's behavior, feelings, thoughts are influenced by implied or actual presence of others. All topics in this chapter come together to describe how people are influenced by others, how they act in society, how people become not self-aware in different situations, or what forces them to change behavior. For example some studies such as Milgram's Shock experiments on obedience are trying to describe what factors influence people to follow orders given by authority. These factors may help to understand why German citizens willingly obeyed orders to injure or kill innocent people during World War II. Thus, social psychology may explain even some historical facts.
My understanding of social psychology totally changed since I read the chapter. For example, I did not think that people are usually more affected by situations than they realize. We make attributions about other people. When a person act kindly, we assume he/she is kind person. As an example when a stranger will help people in accident, we tend to think that he/she is super kind and heroic person. Of course it is a very heroic action. However, firefighters, police officers, military almost everyday risk their lives to save others. Attributions are our explanations for events, or actions including other people's behavior. There are two types of attributions: personal and situational. People's explanations for why events or actions occur that refer to peoples internal characteristics such as abilities, traits, or moods are personal attributions. Situational attributions are explanations that based on external factors such as the weather, luck, accident and so on. One of the interesting facts that knew now is that when we make attributions about ourselves, we tend to focus situations rather than personal characteristics. For example, when we fail the exam we usually say that it was too hard, questions were tricky and the exam itself was unfair. However, when explaining other people's behavior we tend to overemphasize the importance of personal factors and underestimate the importance of the situation. For instance, if someone failed the same exam, we might say that he/she just did not study. From the standpoint of Social psychology, it happens because we know less about situations of other people and we tend to think that what happened was based on their personal traits. In contrast we know more about situations that we are involved in.
One of the most interesting topics in this chapter was stereotypes make us feel and act in certain ways. We tend to create mental stereotypes because they are fast, easy way to think about social information. However they are always correct and sometimes may have negative consequences. When stereotypes are negative, they may lead to prejudice and discrimination. Prejudice involves negative feelings, opinions, beliefs associated with a stereotype. Discrimination is inappropriate and unjustified treatment of people as a result of prejudice. There are different theories which have explained why stereotypes lead to prejustice and discrimination. For example one of them is saying that people discriminate against others to protect their own self-esteem, or according to another theory people threat others as scapegoats to relieve the tension of daily living. Also one of the interesting facts was about ingroup and outgroup bias. We are powerfully connected to the groups we belong to. For example during big football games we are wearing team’s colors, cheering ourselves hoarse, or doing silly dance. Sometimes we are not only cheering for them, we fight for them or even can die for them. Sometimes football or any other sport fans act aggressively to show that we are belonging to particular group. Those groups that we belong to are called ingoup. Those that we don’t belong to are outgroup. Our group membership is important part of our social identity. Ingroup favoritism is one of the negative consequences of categorizing people in ingroup and outgroup. It happens when we are more willing to do favors for ingroup members or forgive their mistakes.
One of the most memorable parts was about deindividuation and how society may negatively influenced our behavior. Deindividuation is a state of reduced individuality rediced seld-awareness, and reduced attention to personal standards. It usually occurs when people are part of the group. The most memorable example was Stanford Prison Study by Philipp Zimbardo. The participants in the experiment were 24 male college students. Some of the students were randomly selected to act “guard” and other half of students were acting as “prisoners” in the mock prison. The results were unexpected. The guards began displaying cruel and sadistic behavior toward the prisoners, while the prisoners became depressed and hopeless.” They continually humiliated the “prisoners” and forced them to engage in pointless and monotonous tasks. Although the study was scheduled to last 2 weeks, it was stopped after only 6 days. So this study shows how quickly ordinary normal people could be transformed into the social roles they were playing. When people lose their self-aware, it typically causes them to act in ways they are not consistent with their values and beliefs.
Terms used: Social psychology, stereotypes, Milgram's Shock experiments, attributions, personal and situational attributions, prejudice and discrimination, ingroup and outgroup bias, Ingroup favoritism, deindividuation, Stanford Prison Study, self-awareness.