[zuminator]

My experience is that a great many people with the type of depression and anxiety disorders that get them placed on SSI are really not capable of holding a full time job. Many of them are prone to emotional outbursts, can't follow simple directions, engage in self-sabotage, can't keep appointments, have bizarre delusions about the way the world works, and are chronically addicted to drugs and/or alcohol. They might be able to do occasional part time stuff on a freelance basis, but they are not long term employable. In the past such people would end up in skid row or locked away in a mental health facility.

To put it another way, I consider myself extremely lazy. Yet as much as I hate working, there's no way in hell I'd trade having a job for the hopeless subsistence existence of an SSI recipient. We're talking less than $20k/yr even in a high cost of living state. One is not allowed to save more than $2,000. If someone's judgment is so impaired that they see this as a fruitful voluntary life plan, then the workforce is better off without them, in my opinion.