There have been numerous diaries posted on dubya's Ponzi Scam re: SS Trust Fund and the "option" of private accounts to "replace" the Social Security saftey net that is provided to young workers in this country.
One of the most overlooked and most important function of Social Security is the fact that, under the current system, if a young worker sustains an injury at his or her place of employment, Social Security is there as Social Security Disability Insurance/SSDI.
I speak from experience.
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At a former employer, I was seriously injured in a work-related accident. In order to obtain the necessary medical treatment, I had to retain an attorney and bring suit.
I would like to point out that, while doing so, I was also in the process of outpatient rehabilitation for a traumatic brain injury.
Rehab is tough, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. Life after rehab is much more difficult than it appears to be, at least it has been for me. I show no outward effects of being a traumatic brain injury survivor, and I have retained my intellectual process. However, there are still neurological/neuropsychological defecits that I live with on a daily basis.
These defecits (which I am reluctant to go into) make it impossible for me to maintain employment. Again, I am not alone in that situation.
This is what dubya refuses to address and what the public is ignorant of: No one anticipated the possibility that he/she may sustain a serious injury causing lifelong disability at his/her place of employment. I never thought that it would happen to me. But it did, so I am makng the best of my life now.
The possibility of a person incurring a similar injury/accident at work has not been adequately addressed, at least, I have been unable to find it, anywhere.
In closing, that is what needs to be brought to the public's attention, particularly younger workders: it can and does happen!!!!!!!!!! I was only thirty-one at the time. I am now forty-five. I would also like to add that disability can affect women as well as men, and I am female, although you would not know it by the name I write under. (There's actually a story behind that.)
I would not wish what I had to go through on anyone1