Hello, friends,

In our last article, we talked about how public banking would help lower-income people who received checks from their jobs be able to manage their finances.  But what about people who, for whatever reason, can’t work?

This article is dedicated to Marc Rosen, who proposed the idea of a dive into the difficulties with getting Supplemental Security Income, or SSI.  We’ll also talk about its cousin, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI).

Marc, we lost you too soon.

What Is SSI, And What Are The Problems With It?

According to the Social Security Administration’s website, SSI provides payments to people who are disabled, or are over the age of 65.  This program is heavily income-based:  You may receive less money if you have other sources of income.  The idea seems to be that people who are truly at the edge of starvation get a lifeline to survive.

Immediately, however, this provides a disincentive for disabled people who currently need help to try to find a new career path.  Why would I want to, say, start an Etsy shop and sell what products I can produce when it will cost me a proportional amount of my income to do so?  The fact that there appears to be a net asset cap on SSI (The website says:  “You may be able to get SSI if your resources are worth $2,000 or less. A couple may be able to get SSI if they have resources worth $3,000 or less.”) recipients means that owning property is virtually impossible.

When you consider what it takes to get SSDI, things get worse.  According to Disability Benefits Group, an organization established in 2009 to help people get benefits, there are five common reasons that people are denied benefits.  They cite a denial rate of 70% for initial filings for disability; that means a 7/10 chance that you will be rejected on your first attempt to get the benefits you need immediately.

The idea is basically that people with disabilities must choose between trying to go it alone (even if their disability makes that an unbearable burden), or accepting the scraps the government gives them - and only the scraps that the government gives them.

Here’s a self-professed case study:  A man who had a brain tumor and has thus-far survived his illness.  He was unable to continue working his day job, he is in agonizing pain on a regular basis, and he applied for disability to help pay for his needs as his life savings are running dry.  He’s hired attorneys to help him get the benefits he needs, but they say it might be a two year wait.  They also advise him that any earned income could immediately disqualify him from receiving benefits, so he’s just forced to wait and sell his remaining assets in order to survive.

How Do We Fix This System?

I wish there was an easy answer to this, but all I’ve got is that we need to change our society - bigtime.  The truth is that societies have been historically terrible at caring for the disabled.  Margaret Mead said that the first indicator of Human civilization is a healed femur; the idea being that a person with such a grievous injury could, with help from those around them, survive a potentially fatal injury and recover from it to some extent.

These examples from history are dazzling stars in an otherwise bleak sky.  The U.S. Holocaust Museum hosts one example of how a ‘modern’ ‘civilization’ ‘cared’ for its disabled people.  For something a bit (yet only a bit) less horrific, it’s estimated that about 53% of homeless veterans in the U.S. have some form of disability.  These are people who theoretically have health care and some form of pension thanks to their contributions to society, and yet cannot even afford a roof over their heads.  If they can’t afford a fair lifestyle, how can anyone expect to be protected should they fall victim to a stroke of bad luck?

The answer is that we need to be willing to redistribute (ahhh such a ‘dirty’ word it’s exciting!) wealth and assets from those who are hoarding them to those who need them.  There’s no rationale for someone like Elon Musk to be able to burn through $200 billion and still remain one of the wealthiest people on the planet.  I understand that some of that wealth is ephemeral, that non-liquid assets such as stock certificates have inconsistent values based solely on the most recent trade for a similar instrument, but surely there’s some point at which there’s just too much wealth sitting about unused by the most powerful in our society, and not enough wealth being given to those who are starving.

I am willing to pay more in taxes if it means the worst-off of us get to have a fair quality-of-life.

If you aren’t?  Maybe there’s something wrong with you.  Think back to Mead’s suggestion about civilization and how it is exemplified by helping one another.

Are you civilized?  Or, not?

Thank you for reading The Progressive Cafe.  If this article has helped you, please consider signing up for our mailing list.  This article is by Jesse Pohlman, a sci-fi/fantasy author from Long Island, New York, whose website you can check out here.