T P O

T   P   O
The Patient Ox (aka Hénock Gugsa)

G r e e t i n g s !

** TPO **
A personal blog with diverse topicality and multiple interests!


On the menu ... politics, music, poetry, and other good stuff.
There is humor, but there is blunt seriousness here as well!


Parfois, on parle français ici aussi. Je suis un francophile .... Bienvenue à tous!

* Your comments and evaluations are appreciated ! *

Monday, April 8, 2013

The New Welfare - Jonah Goldberg


The New Welfare
by
Jonah Goldberg *
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[Is disability the new welfare?  As the nature of the economy changes, disability programs are sometimes taking the place of welfare.]

The government in Britain recently did something interesting.

It asked everyone receiving an "incapacity benefit" — a disability program slowly being phased out under new reforms — to submit to a medical test to confirm they were too disabled to work. A third of recipients (878,000 people) didn't even bother and dropped out of the program rather than be examined. Of those tested, more than half (55%) were found fit for work and a quarter were found fit for some work.

But that's Britain, where there's a long tradition of gaming the dole. Americans would never think of taking advantage of the taxpayers or misleading the government. Well, except for the couple dozen people who have pleaded guilty to scamming the Long Island Rail Road's federal disability system in a $1-billion fraud scheme. That would pay for a lot of White House tours.

Though hardly isolated, the LIRR scandal is an obvious black-and-white case of criminality. The real problem resides in a grayer area.

In 1960, when vastly more Americans were involved in physical labor of some kind, 0.65% of workforce participants between the ages of 18 and 64 were receiving Social Security disability insurance payments. Fifty years later, in a much healthier America that number has grown to 5.6%.

In 1960, 134 Americans were working for every officially recognized disabled worker. Five decades later that ratio fell to roughly 16 to 1.

Some defenders of the status quo say these numbers can be explained by the entry of women into the U.S. workforce, the aging of baby boomers and the short-term spike in need that came with the recession.

No doubt those are significant factors. But not nearly so significant as to explain why the number of people on disability has been doubling every 15 years (while the average age of recipients has gone down) or why such a huge proportion of claim injuries can't be corroborated by a doctor.

Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute and the Harvard School of Public Health notes in his recent book "A Nation of Takers: America's Entitlement Epidemic" that 29% of the 8.6 million Americans who received Social Security disability benefits at the end of 2011 cited injuries involving the "musculoskeletal system and the connective tissue." Fifteen percent claimed "mood disorders."

It's almost impossible, Eberstadt writes, "for a medical professional to disprove a patient's claim that he or she is suffering from sad feelings or back pain." And that's assuming a doctor wants to disprove the claim.

In an illuminating and predictably controversial exposé for "This American Life," NPR's "Planet Money" team tried to figure out why, since 2009, nearly 250,000 people have been applying for disabilities every month (while we've averaged only 150,000 new jobs every month).

The answers fall on both sides of the gray middle.

One factor has to do with what correspondent Chana Joffe-Walt calls the "Vast Disability Industrial Complex." These are the sometimes shady, sometimes well-intentioned lawyers who fight to fatten the rolls of disability recipients. These lawyers get a cut of every winning claimant's "back pay." The more clients, the bigger the take. That's why they run ads on TV shouting, "Disabled? Get the money you deserve!"

Then there are the doctors. Joffe-Walt profiles one rural Alabama doctor who signs off on disabilities for pretty much anyone lacking a good education on the assumption their employment prospects are grim.

That points to the even bigger parts of the story. As the nature of the economy changes, disability programs are sometimes taking the place of welfare for those who feel locked out of the workforce — and state governments are loving it. States pay for welfare, the feds pay for disabilities.

There are those who are quick to argue that this is all bogus, there's nothing amiss with the disability system that greater funding and a better economy won't fix. Maybe they're right. One way to find out would be to ask every recipient to get a thorough examination, just as they did in Britain. Maybe the results here in the United States would be interesting too.

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* Los Angeles Times, Opinion (April 2, 2013)

Friday, April 5, 2013

10 Happiest Countries - by Mariam Jehangir



 
How happy do you think Americans are in relation to people in other countries?

If you rated us in the top ten, you’d be wrong. At least that’s what the Legatum Prosperity Index suggests. The annual list is based off a study of 142 countries that are ranked on 89 factors in 8 categories such as economics, personal freedom and health, to determine where people enjoy the best quality of life and are the happiest.

For the first time in the index’s history, the states fell out of the top 10 and landed on number 12. So what were the countries with the happiest people and what were some of the factors that earned them their rankings?

Check out the list.

10) Ireland This country of around 4.5 million made it in the top 10 with its highest scores in the Personal Freedom and Safety & Security categories, both of which ranked as the fourth highest over the rest of the countries.

9) Switzerland This nation, known for its bountiful natural beauty had the highest score of any country for its both its economy and governance. These stats helped the country reach the ninth spot on the list.

8) Netherlands The country’s name means “low lands” in Dutch, due to its closeness to sea levels, but the people’s spirits seem to be rather high, as its eighth spot placement suggests. The country’s best score was in the Social Capital category, where it placed sixth worldwide. Health followed right behind with a seventh spot placement.

7) Finland The seventh largest European country landed the seventh highest overall spot on the happiness list. What a happy coincidence, right? It rated third in both the Safety & Security and Entrepreneurship & Opportunity categories.

6) Canada Sure this country gets a lot of flak from its American neighbor but that hasn’t stopped it from placing at the sixth level. One big factor might be its top score on the Personal Freedom category, in which it beat out all other nations.

5) New Zealand This Oceanic island followed Canada with the second rank in the Personal Freedom category, and the very top spot for its education ranking. It also held the second spot for governance.

4) Australia Right behind New Zealand is Australia in the Education category, and the third for the Personal Freedom category. Although it didn’t do quite as well as New Zealand in those categories, it still fared better with its health and economic standing, making it the fourth on the list.

3) Sweden Another fun ranking coincidence: The third largest country in the EU has the third  place on this list. It ranks the second highest in entrepreneurship & opportunity in the world and the 4th in governance.

2) Denmark This Nordic country enjoys a rich and vibrant history. It also enjoys the first, second and third world ranking in the Entrepreneurship & Opportunity, Social Capital and Governance categories, respectively. These stats factored in to make the country the second highest on the Legatum Prosperity Index.

1) Norway The “Happiest Country in the World” title belongs to Norway. The Scandinavian country had high marks all across the board: It earned the top social capital ranking; the second highest in economy and Safety & Security; fourth in the Health and Entrepreneurship & Opportunity categories; and the sixth highest in education and personal freedom. Its lowest score was for governance at the 13th spot, but when you consider that is out of 142 countries, it doesn’t seem that bad at all.

We don’t know about you, but we’re thinking about packing our bags and buying a one-way ticket to Norway

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* http://firsttoknow.com