A man calls me about a letter we sent him regarding his disability. I try for a good ten minutes to find his case, but I can't. I ask him repeatedly to simply read me the letter, from top to bottom, so I can know what he's looking at and talking about, but instead of reading me the letter he simply insists the letter is for his disability claim. Finally, he reads the letter, which clearly states we are trying to reach another person but have been unable to do so, and they indicated this gentleman might be able to help us locate him. I have an extraordinarily labored conversation with him, finally trying to tell him my name, but he can't understand or even say my name. The phone call ends, and I hang up.
Much later, I receive an email from an out-of-state colleague who is trying to schedule an appointment for the original person in the above story, not the individual I talked to. My colleague stated that she had scheduled an appointment for the original applicant, and hey, by the way, I read your report about the guy who couldn't say your name. Funny stuff! I wrote back and said that I felt compelled to include all of that in my report as it could ultimately affect the outcome of the case if, for example, the original Perth couldn't be contacted we might have a better idea about why contact wasn't able to become established as it was being held up by an individual with comprehension problems. I mentioned to her that it had taken me forever to get him to realize the letter was in reference to another person and it wasn't about his claim. My colleague responded in email form, "I guess some families/friend groups are all on Gov. Assist of some sort. Not good for us tax payers!"
It's common for my colleagues to have the impression that there are "pockets" of the country where people get together and talk. "You're on disability?! But you do meth all the time and you're pain free! How do you get free money to live without working?! I wanna do that, too!" And then the fraudulently sick person explains the intricacies of disability to the Soon To Be On Easy Street person, and soon both of them are fraudulently receiving disability checks. And then their whole apartment complex is receiving disability, and soon it's all of St. Louis and no one is working and everyone is a faker and a cheater and my taxes are being wasted on these liars! And it's true that once in a while people apply for benefits who are obviously lying and trying to scam the program. But that's where I come in and say, "this person is a liar," and then I make my point, and most of the time it's right and the person doesn't get a check. Because I don't want my tax money to be ill-spent, so I do my job to make sure it's spent well. After all, it hasn't been my money for a very long time, I've managed to live without it, and it would be good if it went towards some good.
But many of the people I work with want their money back. Everybody, to them, is lying and their taxes are being squandered on liars and cheats. Why aren't they doing anything about it, I wonder. Or, more often than that, I wonder why they're not joining those people on Disability Easy Street, since it's so easy to deceive the system. I never get a straight answer when I ask that question.
In fact, most of the time if I don't simply agree with the person's point of view, I get strange looks or silence. At first I thought it was because people were thinking about what I had to say and they were thinking about life in a new way. Until I realized these people don't have critical thinking skills, so they're definitely not thinking about what I've said. They are simply confused. Like creating the Mona Lisa right before the eyes of a dog. "What," the dog would say upon your completion. "I got balls to lick."
"I guess some families/friend groups are all on Gov. Assist of some sort. Not good for us tax payers!"
So I responded in the affirmative, and tried to infuse some humor.
"Quite possibly. Although I shudder to think of what might happen if that guy were to work the front counter of a McDonald's. 'Why are you ordering? This is MY Big Mac!'"
I said she was quite possibly right. And then I walked down the street she was paving. The street where she gets her money back, and the social net we all agreed be put in place to help the elderly and those in need be taken away, forcing the disabled people to attempt to care for themselves rather than die under a rock or by walking out in the ocean and drowning. At least the ocean drowners are considerate enough to dispose of their corpses before they die rather than leaving them on the street so that WE, the poor put-upon living are forced to deal with their human detritus. Fuckin' dead, inconsiderate fuckers. You know why they died, don't you? Cuz they're lazy and don't want to work. Which is why we should close down the border.
But my colleague didn't know what to do.
She was confused by the English writing.
It wasn't in agreement with what she was saying... But I was saying she was right.
...migraine from thought loop feedback...
Ten minutes later, her email response came.
"I guess I better get back to taking care of your cases."
Fucking passive-aggressive bitch.
People like her are why we need a huge population purge.
Like cutting out the cancer so the healthy body can remain.
Or vomiting the sickness out so the healthy body returns to health.
I hate her and most everyone.
Happy Wednesday!
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