In early 2009, Rob was laid off from his latest job and immediately began receiving unemployment benefits... He looked for work, but he looked less and less diligently with each passing week. Benefits were extended — then extended again. While unemployed, he lived a far more sedate lifestyle and quickly began gaining weight — eating foods purchased with government assistance — and as he gained weight, his health deteriorated. His joints ached, his blood pressure rose, and he became extremely anxious.
Knowing friends on disability — and realizing that the benefits were roughly equal to the pay he received at his last job — he applied, claiming that his muscular-skeletal problems combined with his anxiety prevented him from working. Within months, he was approved, and he stopped any effort to look for work, knowing that if he found a job his benefits would cease. His sedate lifestyle continued, his health deteriorated even further, and — soon enough — he was truly "disabled" by any objective medical measure.In the old America, Rob might have starved, but he'd have starved proudly and wouldn't be having no fat-people problems. And if Rob should get the diabeetus, I bet Big Gummint'll give him medicine for it, thus denying him a dignified early death.
In other words, we safety-netted Rob into chronic illness and long-term dependency.
As a liberal, I'd say Rob's sad case calls for federal Bowflex subsidies.
Wait, shouldn't French be scolding his friend for not taking more personal responsibility, not mumbling about how this isn't really his fault? Wignut morality is hard...
ReplyDeleteWould it help you to know that Rob is white?
ReplyDeleteSee-- wingnut morality is easy.
Nah, wingnut morality is easy: Rob is white.
ReplyDeleteWow, Rob sounds exactly like a conservative stereotype of welfare dependency. I wonder if he knows the black guy on McArdle's bus and the Arab who drives Tom Friedman around.
ReplyDeletehis ole buddy Rob (not his real name a real person)
ReplyDeleteAmended.
"Rob" if he exists, sounds like a classic case of deep, crippling depression, which his ole buddy Dave helps with by criticizing "Rob"'s every move.
ReplyDeleteNeat.
I don't know if the ability to get disability differs from state to state? A friend of mine is genuinely disabled and it took him six months and a lawyer to get approved and he counted himself as lucky compared to other people in similar situations he knows. And as an aside, he lost quite a bit of weight after becoming unable to work. Right wing fantasies aside, poverty is a great way to shed the pounds.
ReplyDeleteSo I'm guessing "not a real person."
Real men pull themselves up out of their depression by their bootstraps. Or, as my stepmom put it to me once, "Just don't be depressed." Thanks for the helpful tip!
ReplyDeleteI gather that if Mitt Romney got a million dollars a month for free that would be good, so why isn't French cheering Rob's pittance?
ReplyDeleteSeems like if you have an unemployed friend who's showing signs of depression and lack of motivation, as a friend you should try keeping him engaged with the world through mutual hobbies, social activities, hiking trips, stuff like that. But I guess that wouldn't be bootstrappy enough.
ReplyDeleteThe National Review lost me at "immediately began receiving unemployment benefits." There is no state in this country where you don't wait at least two weeks, and in every state I know of employers routinely contest claims in an effort to wait beneficiaries out until at least one appeal has been rejected.
ReplyDeleteBut the NR is right that very cheap food will make you fat, especially if you've been doing physical work and are in the habit of eating 3-4,000 calories a day.
Seems to me that I pay into unemployment insurance -- which is, indeed, insurance -- every pay period. So how is that "government assistance"?
ReplyDeleteIn Wingnut Fantasy Land, the government is just eager to hand you handfuls of money. Why, I bet mere moments after Rob got home on his last day, some gubbamint bureaucrat was knocking on his door all, "Hey I heard you lost your job! Congratulations! Here's some money!"
ReplyDeleteIt's worse than French thinks. Both of my parents were in pretty good shape when they went on Social Security and Medicare. However, within a few years they became visibly enfeebled. They began to experience health problems, and spent more and more time "taking it easy." Eventually, they died.
ReplyDeletePoor Rob must have been laid off from his job as Thomas Friedman's cab driver. The Obama economy is truly a nightmare.
ReplyDeleteThe first step of the story is the most important one:
ReplyDelete"In early 2009, Rob was laid off from his latest job."
That's what set off the chain of events. There are so many possible causes. Maybe he sucked at his job, maybe he was already depressed. Maybe there was a GIANT recession. Maybe his job was outsourced. Maybe a union could have saved his job. Who knows? But that layoff is the key moment. One has to think about why that happened and what to do to prevent it from happening to other people. Of course, if recession related, that would involve having to bring up greedy bankers and deregulation, and all that stuff Republicans don't like to talk about, so let's just write that sentence in the passive voice so no one pays much attention to it.
I've been unemployed for 18 months and my wife is expecting in February. If it weren't for commie subsidies like unemployment and state health care, we'd be living in a gutter (and I've been diligently looking for work—had 4 interviews, even, and am currently waiting to hear back form 2 places about interviews, which will probably happen after the holidays).
ReplyDeleteAnd yet, my wingnut brother-in-law and his shrewish wife have, since about a week before the election when it became apparent to them that Romney hadn't a chance in hell of winning, been all over us for our irresponsible lifestyle.* Apparently, i was supposed to forego unemployment and take one of those abundant minimum wage jobs that would pay half as well, because that would be the right thing to do, especially now that we're expecting a child (which it is irresponsible of us to have, given our situation, so we should have planned better, damn us!). Mostly, they just want us to be miserable and can't accept the fact that, in spite of being unemployed, I've lost weight, am sleeping better, less stressed (my previous job sucked) and my wife and I are happy and looking forward to be coming parents.
_________
* It all started when my sister-in-law posted on Facebook that she was voting for Romney because Obamacare had made her insurance premiums go up. I pointed out that Obamacare wouldn't start until January, 2014 and that when we had health insurance, our premiums went up every year, sometimes twice. But I was of course wrong, because as we all know, insurance companies never raised their prices before Kenyan Socialism forced them to.
yeah. this poor guy sounds like someone who has some serious mental health issues. i wonder how the availability of mental health care for folks who get mired in a situation like rob's measures up in tennesse? maybe someone at nro can do a blog post about that!
ReplyDeleteRemember: The only possible way to get the job creators to work is by giving them ever more money. And the only possble way to get poor people like "Rob" to work is to make sure they have ever less money.
ReplyDeleteThe solution is simple: make participation in Michelle Obama's Let's Move! program obligatory.
ReplyDeleteBut, but it's the gubamint! Writing you a check! Yeah, my brother-in-law and his wife gave me grief over accepting a "handout" (my own money paid back to me) by being on unemployment instead of getting one of those lucrative minimum wage jobs (because every employer wants to hire a 35 year old professional whose last job paid $25/hr instead of some college student who thinks $10 an hour is just fine).
ReplyDeletehe applied, claiming that his muscular-skeletal problems combined with his anxiety prevented him from working. Within months, he was approved... and — soon enough — he was truly "disabled" by any objective medical measure.
ReplyDeleteThe whole thing is full of tells, but this was the horseshit clincher for me. Anyone who has ever tried to claim SS Disability will have an experience just like your friend's, if not worse. For the most part, first-time claims are rejected automatically, and persevering claimants eventually get approved only after hiring a disability lawyer to work the case, if ever, and only after much difficulty, examinations, documentation, and so on.
This, too:
Knowing friends on disability — and realizing that the benefits were roughly equal to the pay he received at his last job —
"Rob" is a guy who's only worked low-paying jobs for 15 years since high school. SSDI benefits are calculated, like SS generally, on your average lifetime earnings before the disability began. The average SSDI payment in 2012 was about $12,000/yr -- well below any poverty line anyone not single, and odds are "Rob" would have received much less. If this was "roughly equal to the pay" at his last job, then French might start caring more about making wages more livable for his imaginary friends, than depriving the unemployed of subsistence -- if he cares at all, that is.
(The comments to that one are a mean-spirited cesspool of this shit.)
I'd say Rob's sad case calls for federal Bowflex subsidies
ReplyDeleteOr P90X. Perhaps Rep. Ryan could even be convinced to sponsor legislation.
I will admit that sometimes when the weather is unseasonably warm, I'll shake my first and say, "ARGH GLOBAL WARMING ARGH" or something to that effect. But I also recognize that this sentiment is largely specious, that local weather may or may not be indicative of global climate change, and that without evidence I'm essentially talking out of my ass.
ReplyDeleteBut one of the truly distinguishing features of a wingnut is that, when they say that fuckin' Obamacare is making their insurance premiums go up and that totally never happened before, they really, truly believe it. They will revise their own pasts to fit the narrative. It's actually a little scary.
touche
ReplyDelete"Mostly, they just want us to be miserable"
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty much it. For some people, clucking their tongue is the default setting.
Hmm. Barack Obama is black, white, and Arab. Coincidence ... or conspiracy?
ReplyDeleteDid you know it's possible to make bootstraps at home? First, cut carefully around a complete asshole ...
ReplyDeleteTo say nothing else about this NR article, I'm crying bullshit to the author's assertion that "[w]ithin months, he was approved" for disability benefits. If one is lucky - very, very lucky - Social Security will take 3-6 months to deny your first claim, forcing you to refile with more paperwork with additional medical substantiation. If a disabled person is lucky enough to survive this long a wait, which is dubious, I highly doubt that the $690 in monthly benefits are anywhere near the wages he earned that would have legally obligated him to any child support worth mentioning to the child's mother.
ReplyDeleteSo how is that "government assistance"?
ReplyDeleteOh, zuzu. Tut-tut. What's next, claiming that Social Security isn't a budget-busting welfare program?
There are so many possible causes.
ReplyDeleteA blah Democrat was inaugurated in early 2009. Case closed.
As a liberal, I'd say Rob's sad case calls for federal Bowflex subsidies.
ReplyDeleteMake it Bowelflex, to be applied immediately and repeatedly to everyone at the Corner, and you've got a deal.
I completely agree with you. Social Security is notoriously bureaucratic and nearly everyone's initial claim is denied as matter of practice. I'm not a fan of this practice, but there's a reason why there are so many quasi-legal outfits out there who advertise to the disabled to help them navigate these denied claims. Multiple physical examinations, financial affidavits, and claim submissions later, one is lucky to find themselves approved for benefits at all.
ReplyDeleteNot only is this National Review author mean-spirited and, frankly, disgusting in his overall tone to his so-called "friend", this is obviously wingnut porn.
Yes, the problem with this country is that we're too nice to unemployed people.
ReplyDeleteHe says:
ReplyDeleteI live in rural, southern Tennessee, in a beautiful county that has a serious meth problem
. . .and complains about government benefits being what holds people back.
He and "Rob" probably have a Republican congressman, that they voted for, who would be more than happy to see "Rob"'s benefits, appetite and health disappear.
In other words, we safety-netted Rob into chronic illness and long-term dependency.
ReplyDeleteThis is the best argument I've heard for firing Jonah Goldberg and forcing him to compete for a job in the free market. It's perhaps the only thing that can save him from the gaping maw of his own self-consuming pantloadiness before he's unable to escape the growing event horizon of bullshit (mass X Derr-Herr/faaaart)
Let him apply and intern at a job where he'll have to pull his own weight without his mommy or the geezers from the board at Regnery pushing him along on his tricycle while he sucks his thumb, a job where facts and accuracy matter, say: a college paper. It will be tough but let's hope he can cut the mustard instead of the cheese for once.
You had to bring this right after I finished wiping the last batch of skreee! out of my cable modem, didn't you?
ReplyDeleteyou are spot on. My own anecdote involves a disability claim, loss a previously useful body part, phantom limb pain, prescription pain killers and depression. SSDI? Not on your life or mine. I finally gave up after a year of trying.
ReplyDeleteHow is it that all these wingers can keep recycling these imaginary friends? McMegan's grateful ghetto guy, Friedman's cabbie, the Tennessee tyro.....you would think their readers are gullib......oh, right, never mind.
Then you'll be accused of promoting Kraft durch Freude.
ReplyDeleteDoes Rob have any illegitimate children? Maybe French's wife Nancy can get a post out of him, too! He can hitch a ride with Friedman's cabdriver.
ReplyDeleteWhy is he down on local entrepreneurs providing a product much in demand in defiance of government bureaucrats? Heisenberg would like to have a word with him.
ReplyDeleteI live in the People's Republic of Oregon and it still took me a month. That was with no contest by my former employer and after I attended an in-person interview at the Unemployment office, filled out all the paperwork and took a 3 hour long skills assessment test.
ReplyDeleteMoral absolutism requires great moral flexibility.
ReplyDeleteI knew a guy, Bob not his real name, who tried too pull himself up by his bootstraps a bit too hard, threw out his back, and now he collects SSI.
ReplyDeleteI tried that once, mds, and all I got for my trouble was a nasty polyester bedspread with a Ted Haggard-shaped hole in it. At least the motel was on his credit card...
ReplyDeleteTwo words for you, my friend: Whiskey. Rebellion.
ReplyDeleteaimai
Maybe David Brooks could get Rob a jerb working at an Applebee's salad bar.
ReplyDeleteRob could learn to eat healthy and start getting paychecks again. Win^2.
~
wow this comment
ReplyDeleteHe left out how Rob bought lobster and filet mignon with his gummint money and used the change to buy whiskey.
ReplyDeleteExactly this. The whole "Rob" story is one whopper after another. My wife is fully disabled. Her average earnings before her medical problems began were around 40K and her annual SSDI benefits are only around 14K. No rational person on earth would make that trade.
ReplyDeleteAs a general rule getting approval is a bit harder in red states. It took us more than two years to get my wife approved in Iowa and we considered ourselves lucky because she was approved on her first court appearance. There's not a chance in hell a remotely healthy person was approved within months in Tennessee.
(which it is irresponsible of us to have, given our situation, so we should have planned better, damn us!).
ReplyDeleteThey do know that the Goopers were on a "no public funds for contraception" kick this year, right?
Anyway, best of luck on your upcoming job interviews. And hopefully your brother and sister-in-law will work through their issues too. Like they say, you can choose your friends...
And of course he used to be a cab driver in his native Kenya.
ReplyDeleteBlack President + Democrat President trumps personal responsibility any day of the week.
ReplyDeleteArbeit macht klein!
ReplyDeleteLess than two weeks after Obama signed the health care bill my wingnut neighbor pointed out that his paycheck (which would have arrived at the end of the previous month) has a 6.2 percent increase in health insurance deduction. A 6.2 percent increase! Proof that Obamacare was already making his insurance go up.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Got a good feeling about one of these jobs.
ReplyDeleteUnemployment insurance is paid for by your employer
ReplyDeleteYour comment rocked me
ReplyDeleteWell, Dr. Helen IS a trained psychologist, right? Help is always available, if you know where to look.
ReplyDeleteKnowing friends on disability — and realizing that the benefits were roughly equal to the pay he received at his last job
ReplyDeleteSounds like the job he lost paid barely enough for subsistence to begin with. Maybe that's Rob's problem.
True, but technically it's part of my compensation for work performed, as are my health insurance premiums.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. What nefarious Obama policies took place in 2008 that would have affected poor Rob's job in early 2009?
ReplyDeleteNot sure if it's been point out yet, but that tale is utter bullshit.
ReplyDeleteI know a woman who had three back surgeries, kidney failure, and needed heart surgery ... and yet it took her SEVEN FUCKING YEARS to get disability. So this guy getting it "within months" for being portly just ain't gonna happen. Not in this lifetime.
Just another variation of the Welfare Queen story.
That's his wife? Jesus Christ.
ReplyDelete"In Wingnut Fantasy Land, the government is just eager to hand you handfuls of money." Especially if you're an illegal immigrant: the gummint will give you a driver's license, a small business of your own (for free!), and a white woman. Ergo, Rob is either an illegal immigrant or this story is a complete fabrication. QED.
ReplyDeleteUm, voting for Bush's TARP?
ReplyDeleteI am sure that Rob (short for Robber, hurr hurr) absolutely exists in French's brain soup.
ReplyDeleteWhat is his point, anyway? That, without unemployment and SDI his old pal Rob would have been just fine? How?
ReplyDeleteHe was put on disability "within months"? I've been waiting over a year for a decision on my case, and I have heart disease and cancer. The system is overwhelmed; few if any get benefits quickly and easily.
ReplyDelete"Within forty eight months" is still within months!
ReplyDeleteAlso, the perfectly reasonable expectation to spend all your time on doctors to make sure that you're still disabled, thus ensuring that you'll never get any time to actually improve your skills and/or apply to jobs, will keep you off your ass and thus make sure that you're not fat any more! Or, you know, healthy.
Well, let's see what Superman has to say about this... http://superdickery.tumblr.com/image/33167743720
ReplyDeleteNot in every state.
ReplyDelete"But the NR is right that very cheap food will make you fat, especially if you've been doing physical work and are in the habit of eating 3-4,000 calories a day."
ReplyDeleteAmen, Mark. Gov't cheese isn't the healthiest thing out there. That obesity and poverty go hand in hand in America isn't an indictment on the poor, but of the very nature of mass-market cheap food.
And here I thought Mr. French and his colleagues believed in "personal responsibility". "Rob" kept eating the fucking Cheetos - why is it OUR fault?
ReplyDeleteI'll bet having no money would have cured his depression right quick!
ReplyDeleteActually, he's made what all conservatives believe to be the rational choice -- living the life of luxury and ease enjoyed by very poor people.
ReplyDeleteHave you no mercy? Isn't being David French's imaginary friend punishment enough?
ReplyDelete