Lissa, as with any government agency, VR complains it doesn’t get enough money, so I imagine if my plan went into effect, it would need a lot more. However, I think if we could divert people away from a lifetime of SSDI payments (as well as reliance on Medicaid, housing vouchers, etc.) it would save the government some money.
Another aspect that needs to be considered is that VR doesn’t need to do much beyond evaluations. There are a variety of private nonprofits that train and employ people with disabilities. They can do the hard work as long as VR pays them. Even if VR doesn’t pay them, these agencies do a lot of training and employment through other government programs, from money raised on private donations, or through businesses they operate.
A variety of federal housing programs run by HUD, the Dept. of Ag, VA, etc., don’t have time limits that I’m aware of. Neither do foo stamps and the free and reduced meal program.
Such as? And which of these programs actually provide entirely free housing, as per your earlier claim?
You’re attempting to argue that the modern welfare state cultivates an attitude of “the government will support me for the rest of my life”. I’m still dubious about the implication that the assistance available to non-disabled poor people actually amounts to anything anywhere near “the government supporting them for the rest of their lives”.
Some of them, if they remain poor, may be assisted by the government with various forms of partial subsidies for their whole lives, but I don’t know of any non-disabled poor people who are actually fully supported by the government forever. Except the ones serving life sentences in jail, perhaps.
Kimstu, the Section 8 program provides a voucher of a certain amount. If the housing costs at or below that amount, then it’s free. Other housing programs in other agencies operate along the same principle, if I recall correctly.
There are a variety of people who don’t work and subsist on these government programs. If they don’t work, they don’t have a source of income. Sure, I’ll grant that some of these “unemployed” people probably work in the underground economy, but certainly some do not. You don’t have to work to get Medicaid (free medical care), you don’t have to work to get food stamps (free food), and you don’t have to work to get free housing. Sure, it’s not a good life, but it’s certainly possible to live on government handouts and never work a day in your life. It helps if you are a woman and have illegitimate children, but it’s not always necessary.
Do you have a cite for any of that? Because all the information I’ve seen describing Section 8 housing vouchers (e.g., wiki) links their amount on the income of the recipient. That is, the voucher recipient pays a certain percentage of their income (usually about 30%) for rent, and the government subsidizes the rest. The whole point of Section 8 as a low-income housing assistance program is that the tenant is paying part of the rent from his/her own income.
This is almost exactly the opposite of the system you describe, where the government provides a fixed-sum subsidy and the tenant might not have to pay anything at all.
Actually very few people who receive disabilty, are on it b/c of things that totally and completely “unable” you to hold a job. Most people on disabilty simply cannot find a job that pays enough for basic costs of living and the additional costs that their disabilty incurs. Like many deaf and hoh people are on it b/c very few insurances cover hearing aids…and hearing aids aren’t cheap at ALL!!!
I have a friend of a friend who needs to use a motorized wheelchair, and struggled for years to find a job. This is a guy with a college degree and a high level of computer skills. He’s brilliant, charming, and speaks 4 languages. He’d have interview after interview after interview, all smiles and excitement from potential employers. . . until the saw him. Seriously, they would not even hire him for telemarketing. He scraped by doing some occasional freelance translation and putting his astronomical medical bills (and the bills for all the other expensive things needed just to make life approach functional) on his credit cards. He had friends and family and friends of family and random people at the coffee shop hitting up employers all over the friggin’ country, with no result. He finally signed up for Section 8 housing and SSDI. It was not for lack of skill, or lack of trying, or lack of wanting. Private employers do not want someone who looks difficult, or looks expensive.
What’s funny is that I have an illness that causes me to miss far more work than he ever would, and need a number of odd accomodations. I think my life would be much, much harder if I had to wear it on my sleeve for the world to see.
(About a month ago, one of those contacts (the random coffee shop one) finally connected him with decent job, and he finally on his way to the regular life he’d have probably had right out of college if only his legs worked)