> Why are these health problems growing so fast? The obvious explanation is that the stigma against faking disability is evaporating in places like Hale County.

You can just look at what Social Security says about this [0]. TL;DR:

- Baby boomers getting old

- Economic conditions (you can see this in the data [1], where there's a suspicious huge leap in claims right around Trump monkeying around w/ the economy)

- Absent/inadequate health care

More directly, this doesn't seem to have anything to do with culture. The average disability application age is ~50 [2]. If this were a cultural issue you'd see that number declining.

> Maybe they just believe that parents should be responsible rather than the state.

What policy are you advocating here? So far all you've talked about is the non-existent freeloader problem.

[0]: https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/briefing-papers/bp2019-01.ht...

[1]: https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/dibStat.html

[2]: https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/statcomps/di_asr/2023/sect03...