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Inequality and Web Search Trends

nytimes.com

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Re: Inequality and Web Search Trends

#11

Post by dragonwriter »

josephschmoe wrote: post #8

Wilcox, Alabama...8% disability? Is that entire county committing disability fraud? What's going on there?

Disability determinations are based on your usual work before the injury/condition on which disability determinations are based, not just the condition you have -- so the particular industries dominant in a region may have a very large impact on disability, not just because of the particular health risks associated with the industry but because of the kind of health conditions that will make someone disabled for the kind of work being done. (Also, changes in economic conditions can cause those able to work to move out to where the work has moved to -- and not be replaced, as the absence of work fails to draw new people in -- resulting in a disproportionate share of unable-to-work left behind.)

Re: Inequality and Web Search Trends

#12

Post by josephschmoe »

bluedino wrote: post #9
josephschmoe wrote: post #8

Wilcox, Alabama...8% disability? Is that entire county committing disability fraud? What's going on there?

http://apps.npr.org/unfit-for-work/ In Hale County, Alabama, nearly 1 in 4 working-age adults is on disability.[2] On the day government checks come in every month, banks stay open late, Main Street fills up with cars, and anybody looking to unload an old TV or armchair has a yard sale. Sonny Ryan, a retired judge in town, didn't hear disability cases in his courtroom. But the subject came up often. He described one…

Man, I need to find that guy's doctor and lawyer. I could start collecting disability checks for my high blood pressure.

I'm 24, can run three miles and work 50 hours/week.

High blood pressure is not a disability.

Re: Inequality and Web Search Trends

#13

Post by autokad »

jawns wrote: post #7

These results are pretty much exactly what you would expect -- people who are struggling aren't likely to be googling for luxury items -- and I would venture to guess that they would be fairly similar even if The Upshot used only income, or only education level, rather than a blend of six metrics, to determine "hard" and "easy" counties to live in. What I find especially intriguing are some of the explanations Leonha…

i hate county level data like this, though they did address that they basically had no choice.

I'm not sure you can consider obesity as part of 'a hard place to live'. thats an action an individual chooses regardless of geography. You could argue that poor people have no choice, they are obese because they are poor for example, but that would be like double counting income if they are highly correlated.

income is also tricky since taxes and costs of living has a huge effect. this could possibly explain why the places to live shown are largely opposite to most 'happiness' indicators that I have seen. at least looking at its map: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/26/upshot/where-are-the-harde...

Re: Inequality and Web Search Trends

#14

Post by bcoates »

josephschmoe wrote: post #8

Wilcox, Alabama...8% disability? Is that entire county committing disability fraud? What's going on there?

http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2011/09/how_to_be_mean_to_you...

It's squishy whether it's fraud or not. The unemployability is real, the medical conditions are a matter of semantics, and it's in nobody's interest to dig at it too deeply.

Re: Inequality and Web Search Trends

#15

Post by dragonwriter »

josephschmoe wrote: post #12
bluedino wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://apps.npr.org/unfit-for-work/ In Hale County, Alabama, nearly 1 in 4 working-age adults is on disability.[2] On the day government checks come in every month, banks stay open late, Main Street fills up with cars, and anybody looking to unload an old TV or armchair has a yard sale. Sonny Ryan, a retired judge in town, didn't hear disability cases in his courtroom. But the subject came up often. He described one…

Man, I need to find that guy's doctor and lawyer. I could start collecting disability checks for my high blood pressure. I'm 24, can run three miles and work 50 hours/week. High blood pressure is not a disability.

High blood pressure can be disability depending on (1) the specifics of the condition ("high blood pressure" is a broad range, not a single binary condition that manifests identically in all people suffering from it), and (2) the persons usual line of work -- disability determinations are generally [1] made based on your ability to do the work you did before the disabling condition manifested.

> High blood pressure is not a disability.

Your high blood pressure, as it currently is, is clearly not a disability for you in the work that you do. That does not mean that high blood pressure is not a disability.

[1] The exception is that each state agency also has a "List of Impairments", a catalog of specific conditions and combinations of conditions that are considered unconditionally disabling; if you have a condition on that list, or one judged as severe as one on that list, you are considered disabled without analysis of the specifics of your previous work.

Re: Inequality and Web Search Trends

#16

Post by josephschmoe »

bcoates wrote: post #14
josephschmoe wrote: post #8

Wilcox, Alabama...8% disability? Is that entire county committing disability fraud? What's going on there?

http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2011/09/how_to_be_mean_to_you... It's squishy whether it's fraud or not. The unemployability is real, the medical conditions are a matter of semantics, and it's in nobody's interest to dig at it too deeply.

This troubles me.

Re: Inequality and Web Search Trends

#17

Post by eastbayjake »

bluedino wrote: post #9
josephschmoe wrote: post #8

Wilcox, Alabama...8% disability? Is that entire county committing disability fraud? What's going on there?

http://apps.npr.org/unfit-for-work/ In Hale County, Alabama, nearly 1 in 4 working-age adults is on disability.[2] On the day government checks come in every month, banks stay open late, Main Street fills up with cars, and anybody looking to unload an old TV or armchair has a yard sale. Sonny Ryan, a retired judge in town, didn't hear disability cases in his courtroom. But the subject came up often. He described one…

That was a great story -- I thought of it for this question, too. Social Security Disability has become a long-term welfare program for the unemployable. They cite judges and administrators who will basically approve SSD if you can demonstrate that no one would employ you, just so people with little chance of retooling their skills can make it to 62 and start drawing from regular Social Security. (Example: A high school dropout who's performed low-skilled labor in a mill/factory for 30 years but then the plant closes, leaving him/her with few skills and 10-15 years until retirement.)

This is another good argument for Basic Income: SSD keeps people from earning some money through whatever skills they have (cleaning houses, selling food, making clothes, day labor, etc.) because of the strict income restrictions on how much you can earn while on SSD. If everyone knows it's a program for the unemployable, why keep up this charade that it's actually for the disabled? Just write them a $1000 check every month and allow them to earn extra income however they choose.

Re: Inequality and Web Search Trends

#18

Post by antoko »

eastbayjake wrote: post #6

> The rise of inequality over the last four decades has created two very different Americas, and life is a lot harder in one of them. This would be a fascinating appendix for Charles Murray's book Coming Apart . If you liked this article, you might enjoy his quiz about which of these two Americas you are likely to live in: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/white-educated-and-wealt... (Edit: I scored 46 and the desc…

The description you suggest is "completely accurate" applies to scores between 11 and 80, on an entire scoring spectrum of 0-99.

I'm not overly impressed.

I scored 27 but I'm a Brit living in the states and a lot of the blue-collar culture stuff doesn't translate (NASCAR).

I'm perfectly fine not being involved with the more pop culture stuff. I've only watched House of the shows they listed.

Is this a worrying new trend though? I'm pretty sure the world has always had its haves and have-nots.

Re: Inequality and Web Search Trends

#20

Post by eastbayjake »

antoko wrote: post #18
eastbayjake wrote: post #6

> The rise of inequality over the last four decades has created two very different Americas, and life is a lot harder in one of them. This would be a fascinating appendix for Charles Murray's book Coming Apart . If you liked this article, you might enjoy his quiz about which of these two Americas you are likely to live in: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/white-educated-and-wealt... (Edit: I scored 46 and the desc…

The description you suggest is "completely accurate" applies to scores between 11 and 80, on an entire scoring spectrum of 0-99. I'm not overly impressed. I scored 27 but I'm a Brit living in the states and a lot of the blue-collar culture stuff doesn't translate (NASCAR). I'm perfectly fine not being involved with the more pop culture stuff. I've only watched House of the shows they listed. Is this a worrying new tr…

The "coming apart" of American culture isn't because too few people watch NASCAR or eat at Applebee's, it's a problem because in one America lots of people do it and in the other America people never do it. It's slowly creating two separate cultures where people have trouble relating to each other because they're growing up with two distinct sets of cultural experiences. It's only incidental that the divide in culture is being driven by meritocracy picking the haves and have-nots.

I'm not surprised you found the results unimpressive, since Britain has a far different history with class and mobility than the United States. I was impressed with how the questions ascertained that I'd grown up in a rural area then moved to a wealthy suburb in adolescence. Things like going to parades, eating at Applebee's, or going fishing were strongly present in the first half of my life and completely absent in the second half. I crossed a major divide in American culture without even realizing it.

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