Comment by nullstyle | Hacker News Reader

Comment by nullstyle | Hacker News Reader

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So are you saying all of the people who watch these channels (in your analogy they "buy get rich quick books") never try to get a disability status? or they try and never make it?

Or do they go for an interview, get their tinnitus, ibs, or chronic back pain diagnosis then try again for more next time?

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Look, I'm not saying we shouldn't help/trust veterans; My father is a severely disabled Vietnam war vet and gave up his body for the air force over a long career. He deserved to have his stairlift paid for by the taxpayer, but he shouldn't have to fight with corrupt service providers who can't do a proper job installing the thing. He shouldn't have to deal with a contractor that won't repair the botched installation for a year because it would cut into their profit margin.

Similarly, he shouldn't have his services degraded because other vets have found out how to take more than their fair share. I'm open to think there is minimal graft, but my experiences say there is some more going on than I can be supportive of.

Maybe you could provide some data to show how I'm mistaken.

You're the one making the claim and assumption and "gut feeling" so it sounds like YOU are the one needing actual data for your "gut feelings".

Sorry this is the same bullshit people do when they see a person able to stand for a few hours and say "WHY ARE THEY ON DISABILITY" and ignoring the rest of the time they aren't seeing, or the people recovering. This is just hearsay, and since you're the one making these claims, then it behooves YOU to provide the proof.

But it's a nice little racket, make a claim and then demand those who deny it provide the proof. That's now how science or respectable arguments work.

This whole thread is full of such bullshit. And it's so people can feel superior to those who they think are scamming the system (in an ever increasing need to "crack down" on those who "abuse" the system (slowly killing it over time, or until you can get a DOGE in and ransack it like a viking ship plundering coastal communities).

Anyways, citation needed, since you're the one making the claims.

I'm a veteran and I know several fellow vets who openly admit to lying to the VA to get disability ratings for maladies they don't have. No, I don't have statistics about how many disabled veterans are lying (how would one gather that information, exactly?), but it is a regular occurrence that I meet guys who brag about their 100% ratings, ask me about mine, and look at me like I'm some kind of poor naive idiot when I tell them that I did not claim disability because I do not feel that I'm disabled.

I do not claim that everyone on VA disability or SSDI is a fraudster. I know veterans who are missing significant portions of their body. I dated a women on SSDI who absolutely needed and deserved it for a neurological disorder. But she knew a family where every single member went on it as soon as they turned 18. Scamming SSDI was essentially their family business.

I am not advocating for DOGE to take an axe to these systems. But just because you or I might find DOGE distasteful does not mean that significant fraud and abuse does not take place. I can only assume that you have not spent much time around these systems or people who use them. Anyone who does immediately hears about their misuse, often from the perpetrators themselves, who are proud of their own cleverness for doing so.

go look back at my original statement. the tools to verify what I asserted are right there; go search youtube and see for yourself.

I'm not trying to feel superior, i'm trying to broaden my perspective by offering my own and engaging with people who comment on it.

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