What i hate about SSI

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What I hate about SSI?

People take out more than they put in.

Those same people complain about the benefits they DO get.

When used improperly, it degrades society by gutting it of a self-reliant work ethic. It becomes an expectation (entitlement) rather than a true safety net.

Sure, there is some good to it. But as a whole it has made a gaping s#!t-hole of the culture.

Qualitative, maybe

I am surprised you would be susceptible to anecdotal evidence. Your posts typically have a healthy degree of skepticism. I'm sure the fact that Snoop Dogg's own present cushy state owes a lot to those "real people" would ensure he always keeps in mind where his bread is buttered when he makes such utterances. Hardly sounds unbiased to me.

Take your class-warfare and shove it up your cushy toga.

What I hate is that you don't even get enough to live on. My mother recently got diagnosed with copd and if she can't work and has to go on disability she would only get enough to pay the rent and maybe the utility bill.

It's still rooted in logic. I haven't lived that life, the bureaucrat making decisions for those people hasn't lived that life, and the politician making the rules most likely hasn't lived that life either. Logically, the person who has the highest credibility discussing the issue is the person who has actually lived it. Not every facet of logic is based in high minded concept, it has real world applications as well.

As for class warfare, in a human hierarchy there will always be class warfare because the goal is to reach the top so you can subjugate those below. The masses fight to increase their status and living conditions while the elite fight to keep their control and power over the masses. At it's core, human hierarchy is counter productive. Human hierarchy is based on the premise that we're all stronger together than we are separate: the sum is greater than the individual parts. Likewise, the whole can only go so far as the weakest link can, no further. It actually behooves the hierarchy to make the bottom, it's foundation, as strong as possible not weaken it. This is especially true of the top, if one is going to stand on the shoulders of others to reach higher it benefits the top to have stronger, more powerful shoulders to stand on. That being said add in a single human trait, fear, and the elite become so terrified of lowered status that they'll do anything to keep the masses down, which in the end only makes the elite weaker because the whole is weaker. It's a very narrow-minded approach, but again it's human nature: people don't care near as much about their society (the whole) as they do the people immediately next to them (the parts), you can't judge yourself accurately against something as large as society but you can judge yourself against your neighbor.

I'm not actually a proponent of SSI, I'd much rather have a government ran work program. If you're unable to work in a normal environment there are all kinds of things in this country that need fixed that don't necessarily need a "normal" environment. As people go on SSI or unemployment or what not, they can donate their time to their country and the country will look after you, like a good strong animal pack operates. This provides jobs and a future to those in dire need and it allows the government to improve the infrastructure of the nation without having to pull resources from elsewhere. It's a win-win for everyone involved, including those at the top and middle because infrastructure improvements help everyone. If you've read posts here by people on SSI you'll realize a lot of them want to work and contribute: they want the paycheck but more than anything they want the self-esteem of contributing something of value.

Capitalism doesn't function to make a nation strong, nor does it function to make sure the needs of citizens are met, it functions in it's own bubble by what it needs-- there are times it doesn't need human capital and other times there's not enough human capital. We can say, well, if capitalism doesn't need you then you're worthless and need to go, or we can understand that capital markets ebb and flow and we need to protect people in an ebb so that there's enough trained human capital when it flows again.

In the United States, at least, a figurative gun is held to the collective heads of its citizens in the form of mandatory taxes born on the lawful promise to return the taxes to the citizens if and when they meet or exceed the conditions under which compensation is offered. If inequities exist in the conditions, the legal fault rests solely on the maker of the promise, not the beneficiaries who have no influence with the conditions. Legally and morally, the benefits that were offered at the time that the taxes were paid must endure.

In other words, the people receiving benefits didn't make the rules under which the benefits are provided. It serves no purpose to denigrate them. Take it up with the deal-makers. Complaining about the beneficiaries is akin to blaming the victim.

Well if you're too disabled to work according to diagnoses and their analysis, you don't really have much of a choice than again, pretty sure disability money spent on goods and services helps stimulate the economy. What do you suggest we all just say its awesome we hardly get enough to live on plus they make it very difficult to get back into work when and if you become able, and even make it very hard to save up for useful investments. There are problems with it that should be addressed, and people have a right to bring those up.

And yes if you are deemed too disabled to work you are entitled to SSI, that is how it works deal with it. I get sick of this same old self reliant rhetoric, no one is completely self reliant for the most part even people who aren't on SSI Disability. And what of all the full time working people that also feel they are 'entitled' to better wages and even more reasonable hours ? Many people who do jobs that involve physical labor otherwise known as work aren't exactly happy you have a small percentage of billionaires sitting on most of the nations wealth funding half the politicians who fail to represent the people while they have to collect food stamps or can barely make rent.

If you want to be in a country were everyone just passively sits by getting sh*t on, why are you still in the U.S huh?

Sadly, I agree that living on SSI alone is not enough. I found out yesterday that I made almost $9,200 off of SSI all last year because I was unemployed.

Hypothetical situation: If I had no husband or family, and lived in an apartment by myself, I would not make it through the year. I would be evicted because I can't pay rent on time because of how little money I made.

Let's face it: SSI alone sucks. Although I love volunteering at the animal shelter, it's not really that satisfying, as I do it for free. I can't even hold a damn job, let alone get one. My career is a total failure.

Most people I've known on ssi get maybe between $700-$900 a month. My rent is $700 a month. That's just not enough to live on. I figure I'd need at least $1200-$1400 a month to survive.

I heard that SSI was not designed to cover regular housing costs. They expect if you don't own a house, that you would have to wait for a public housing space or a section 8 housing voucher. The problem with that is that the wait lists are usually very long. We can hope that the rental market cools off so that some people on SSDI or SSI can afford an inexpensive regular apartment. The SSDI benefit amounts vary a lot, so some people on SSDI will live the same way as those on SSI, and can get medicaid and food stamps. There are some people getting enough SSDI to afford an apartment, as SSDI can be anywhere from 700 to 2,000.

Yeah. I have a full time job, and SSDI, and if not for section 8 I'd be homeless. There's not really much I can do about it except work on eventually getting a better job. Probably a good thing I'm fine with a rather austere lifestyle.

Yes the wait can be quite long but I was able to sign up for section 8 through some program my mental health center was doing...I think it more or less sped up the process or something as I should be getting a section 8 voucher before the end of this year. I think that means then I'd pay around 300 for rent and the voucher covers the rest, I just hope rent in this case includes utilities as I doubt I could afford those separately.

Another concern though is how it works if you add anyone else to the lease or if that automatically disqualifies you or something. I have a boyfriend and I doubt things with us are ending anytime soon, so I am sure in the not too far off future we may want to live together. He doesn't make a lot of money, but its probably just enough to where he wouldn't qualify for section 8. So yeah not sure how that would affect it if he moved in with me...maybe I'd just have to be the one paying rent.

I'm still in the process of claiming disability benefits and its worse in my country as the government don't even recognise the condition, neither the health service nor anything in my area can help, they only see physical disabilities, anything else they just deem as benefit fraud, we are at the bottom of the hierarchy of who survives and who is at top. I consider myself one of the survivors below the working class, the government waiting for us to die so they can allocate more money to things they think are better spent like refugees.

You're not working class if you're dependent on SSI or SSDI.

Most of the opinions I've seen expressed here are wrong, if only because they assert an absolute in place of a usual.

You don't have to wait two years and get a lawyer to get SSI. I helped with the paperwork for two family members and neither one of them had to wait two years, be denied, get a lawyer for an appeal or anything like that. They both got approved on the first round, waiting more like 4-6 months (which can seem like forever).

It is pretty much true that you can't pay market rate rent on what you get from SSI, so you'll either have to apartment-share (but so do a lot of working, NT people), or get yourself into subsidized housing.

SSI is a safety net for those who never "paid into the system" to a large enough extent that they earn a disability benefit. You really don't have a right to this money if you are able to work, so stop whining and work. Of course, if you try and fail, that merely strengthens your case for being truly disabled.

It is really very helpful to have family who will help out with certain kinds of supports to tide you over between benefits. As the mother of a daughter on SSI, I have provided a (cheap) car, assisted with some (but not other) medical and dental bills, given away food, and paid for generous shopping trips for clothes, as well as occasional vacations. My involvement was to assist her in living independently using a combination of government programs: a basic stipend (SSI), housing subsidy, Medicare, and food share (formerly called Food Stamps).

People with SSI support may want to explore informally bartering services. For instance, if you house-sit, pet-sit or baby-sit, perhaps the people you do that for will make gifts of food, used but good furniture or clothes, concert tickets, a car repair, or other benefits. I would keep this on the down-low, which is the reason for being informal - nothing in writing. You simply don't report it, and SSI has no way of finding you out. But if a relative pays your rent or utility bills, that is easily found out and you can owe the government the amount spent before you get any further assistance.

So wait, on SSI you can't have anyone even your parents help you financially? That seems pretty messed up to me, like your mom couldn't pay for a phone line to call you on? I don't understand how they expect people to survive otherwise, people on SSI don't even get enough to live independently in a lot of places with their entire check.

It's not a perfect system, Jacoby.