Have we become a nation of 'jurosomatic' Victims, with Victimhood being the national pastime?

2015-09-30T21:52:14-04:00

John Stossel's opinion piece prompted the question.

"It makes me wonder about those well-intended government programs meant to help the disabled. Social Security disability money used to go to blind people, people in wheelchairs, people clearly disabled.
But now billions go to people who say they’re disabled by things like headaches and back pain. Disability payments have increased so much that the program will soon go broke.
But the increase in payments makes no sense.
Medicine improved since 1990. People do less hard manual labor. There should be fewer disabled people. Why are there more?

Perhaps it’s jurosomatic pain? Or government-handout-omatic pain?

Some people are just inclined to complain, and the modern welfare state encourages that. Lawyers made it worse by encouraging people to sue, rather than 'strive'. That changed America. When you reward something, you get more of it.
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2015/09/30/america-home-free-land-victim.html?intcmp=hplnws

America: Home of the free, land of the victim? | Fox News

We change people’s character by teaching them that “victimhood” is a way to get attention and moral status.

Response by 1stSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Sep 30 at 2015 10:35 PM

2015-09-30T22:35:52-04:00

Interesting article. I guess though that the truth would be different for each "victim". But what ever you do don't trash talk the WWF.

Response by PO3 Sherry Thornburg made Sep 30 at 2015 11:06 PM

2015-09-30T23:06:05-04:00

I have a hard time with this one, as I know people that should be on disability who choose not to be or who have tried to for very clear reasons, but have been denied. Pretenders mess the program up for everyone, but treating everyone like a pretender isn't fair at all.

Response by Cpl James Waycasie made Oct 1 at 2015 2:12 AM

2015-10-01T02:12:24-04:00

Lol, people just look for something to claim they are a victim now days. Seems these last few generations have nothing better to do than cry and whine about something.

Response by 1LT Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 1 at 2015 12:10 PM

2015-10-01T12:10:51-04:00

I was disappointed by this article. I hope the intent of the author was not to devalue or attack individuals who have truly suffered. I thought it was irresponsible to say that individuals who suffer from headaches or back pain are less deserving of disability than others. First, the headaches could be a consequence of anything from severe migraines to cancer. Back pain could be a consequence of degenerative discs, fiber myalgia, multiple sclerosis, or other very serious illnesses. The article also fails to consider that as the baby boomer generation has more people than other generations and they worked longer than their preceding generations and many are applying for disability because of injuries/illnesses they suffer close to retirement, but too early to collect social security. Individuals in that situation must apply for disability. I doubt people with illness or disability decided to get sick/disabled for attention. Stating things like "people benefit from being a victim" is toxic. It suggests that anyone who is a victim of anything including violent crime seeks redress for attention. I did not like how the author uses celebrities as examples to support his generalization that victims want attention and moral status. The examples were lacking because they appear to be instances where celebrities should have used another word instead of victim. The article would have been stronger if it was about how people sometimes throw around the word victim inappropriately because it harms victims who are already in a vulnerable position by diluting what happened to them.