On 18 Apr 2006 at 15:03, B. replied:
> By the same token, I do know that some folks on
> disability try to get jobs where they're paid "under
> the table"/off-the-books so they won't lose benefits.
> That means they don't pay into the system from their
> paycheck, either, of course.
>
> Anecdotally, I've known one (white) person in the past
> who did this while getting SSDI; but I also did know
> some kids on student visas from Bangladesh in the
> 1990s who were working under the table at a
> convenience store run by folks from their home
> country. All of the above do pay sales taxes, user
> fees for services like driver's licenses, etc., and
> they pay into the system in a variety of ways, even if
> their pay isn't taxed. As these workers try to get
> ever-more decent jobs, they do what Doug said, get the
> fake SS# and start paying into the Social Security
> fund, FICA, etc., with no real hope of ever drawing
> from it.
>
> But this thread is pretty much nothing more than
> classic false dichotomy, right? Artificially pitting
> immigrants against the native disabled.
>
> -B.
You hit the nail on the head. Why someone on this list would arbitrarily pit one group against another has me scratching my head however.
I too know a person who is drawing disability while working "under-the-table". He was a restaurant inspector in NYC who was involved in an auto accident. He received a decent 7 figure lump settlement and NYC (Or maybe the county) pays him $80K a year. His disability is a brain injury that makes him hostile and belligerent and thus unemployable. Although I know many employed persons who are equally hostile and belligerent. He travels world wide taking pictures, no job to tie him down, and sells the photos
He confided that he makes more selling photographs than his disability income but doesn't want that source to dry up so he keeps no records of sales.
Sadly, I was simply born and raised a belligerent hostile asshole and thus have to earn my own keep rather than be considered disabled.
I wonder what Marta thinks about the Seattle case where Medicaid was forced to pay for gender re- assignment surgeries? In all, Medicaid paid about $84,000 over three years for nearly 20 surgeries to complete someones conversion because their gender-identity disorder was considered a disability.Maybe we could pit gender-reassignment disability cases against immigrants instead?
John Thornton