I like Dave Ramsey’s take on it:
Dave’s Take on Occupy Wallstreet
I don’t think there’s anything immoral about this protest, but I honestly don’t see the good coming from it.
I agree with some of this, but what are people supposed to do when they are too ill/disabled to work and they have been denied health insurance and often, can’t find a place to live? Or they go bankrupt b/c they don’t have health insurance and someone gets in a car crash or is seriously ill.
The fact is, raising a child with cerebral palsy or down syndrome is expensive and the solution is not always “you can go get a job.” However I find writeups like this tend to assume people are able-bodied and healthy. If you’re not, what are you supposed to do? And I have a low opinion of Michael Moore b/c in his supposedly “hard-hitting” documentary, he ignored the problem of mental illness and its lack of treatment including the closing of most psychiatric hospitals and denial of treatment by insurance companies.
I’m genuinely asking this question and I don’t want to be hostile. It also is not good for people with disabilities to sit at home and do nothing if they can go to school or work, the problem is many people are considered unemployable by companies due to the expense, and often the inability of the disabled person to consistently work a 40 hour week. So someone who can work 10 or 20 hours may end up doing nothing b/c the jobs (that are accessible) are not there. It’s not good for people to get the message that they can’t contribute or do anything, but what happens when no one’s hiring? Or the jobs that are available are not physically possible?
Does anyone know of any solid program that helps disabled people figure this stuff out (school and employment decisions) or do they have to work it out individually?
edited to add:
Ramsey says:
This is the greatest country on the planet, but even here, you’re not guaranteed wealth, talent, fame, a full head of hair or six-pack abs. Those things are not in the Constitution. You are, however, guaranteed the freedom to make your life what you want it to be. And when you do that, when you build your life around your dreams and passions and hard work, you’re guaranteed the right to keep it. No one has the right to take it away from you.
This makes me think he’s never spent much time around the severely mentally ill and seen the rejection they get b/c other people fear them. That includes getting fired from jobs, or not hired in the first place, b/c of problems with psychosis, even if you are in treatment and taking medication. It also includes the stigma that says the mentally ill are violent, even though violence is much more associated with substance abuse like alcoholism and other drugs. Many people with mental illness abuse alcohol and drugs but not everyone, and those who don’t often end up with the same stigma.
I genuinely don’t think however it’s good for people to sit at home their whole lives and be told they are worth nothing. The question is, who can hire? - and if this is OT maybe I should start another thread.
