[bluedino]

http://apps.npr.org/unfit-for-work/

In Hale County, Alabama, nearly 1 in 4 working-age adults is on disability.[2] On the day government checks come in every month, banks stay open late, Main Street fills up with cars, and anybody looking to unload an old TV or armchair has a yard sale.

Sonny Ryan, a retired judge in town, didn't hear disability cases in his courtroom. But the subject came up often. He described one exchange he had with a man who was on disability but looked healthy.

"Just out of curiosity, what is your disability?" the judge asked from the bench.

"I have high blood pressure," the man said.

"So do I," the judge said. "What else?"

"I have diabetes."

"So do I."

[eastbayjake]

That was a great story -- I thought of it for this question, too. Social Security Disability has become a long-term welfare program for the unemployable. They cite judges and administrators who will basically approve SSD if you can demonstrate that no one would employ you, just so people with little chance of retooling their skills can make it to 62 and start drawing from regular Social Security. (Example: A high school dropout who's performed low-skilled labor in a mill/factory for 30 years but then the plant closes, leaving him/her with few skills and 10-15 years until retirement.)

This is another good argument for Basic Income: SSD keeps people from earning some money through whatever skills they have (cleaning houses, selling food, making clothes, day labor, etc.) because of the strict income restrictions on how much you can earn while on SSD. If everyone knows it's a program for the unemployable, why keep up this charade that it's actually for the disabled? Just write them a $1000 check every month and allow them to earn extra income however they choose.

[josephschmoe]

Man, I need to find that guy's doctor and lawyer. I could start collecting disability checks for my high blood pressure.

I'm 24, can run three miles and work 50 hours/week.

High blood pressure is not a disability.

[dragonwriter]

High blood pressure can be disability depending on (1) the specifics of the condition ("high blood pressure" is a broad range, not a single binary condition that manifests identically in all people suffering from it), and (2) the persons usual line of work -- disability determinations are generally [1] made based on your ability to do the work you did before the disabling condition manifested.

> High blood pressure is not a disability.

Your high blood pressure, as it currently is, is clearly not a disability for you in the work that you do. That does not mean that high blood pressure is not a disability.

[1] The exception is that each state agency also has a "List of Impairments", a catalog of specific conditions and combinations of conditions that are considered unconditionally disabling; if you have a condition on that list, or one judged as severe as one on that list, you are considered disabled without analysis of the specifics of your previous work.