In perusing my daily Twitter feeds I ran across a new blog posting by my buddy Don Ryan. I found I had to share some of his thoughts.  I couldn’t have said it better.

“[The] US Social Security system, at its origin, there were ten workers paying for each retiree.  The retirement age was set at 65 (which was about the life expectancy at the time) so there was no getting paid social secrurity for twenty years.  I just did a life care plan on a young adult where the life expectancy was 81.  This is why we now have three (soon to be two) workers paying for each person receiving Social Security.  If you think this is sustainable, you didn’t do well in math. ”

“For the love of God, case manage Social Security Disability cases.  If these were managed like workers’ compensation cases, we could significantly purge the rolls of people who can work but just choose not to.  Unfortunately, SSDI is seen as the golden ticket to not working anymore.  Those who are unable to work but have medical treat that will allow them to return to the workforce should return to the workforce; not have a government (and tax payer) sponsored vacation.  Provide retraining assistance, vocational rehabilitation and case management services to allow (yea, compel) disabled people who can to return to the workforce and contribute to the (rapidly dwindling) tax base.”

Preach on Brother Ryan, preach on!