Incentivos para a Vagabundagem e a Multiplicação dos Estropiados

Se há pensão para aleijados podem apostar que vagabundos tentarão ganha-la, mesmo quando não têm problema físico algum. Isso acontece na selva, na Grécia e está acontecendo nos EUA. Ed Glaeser, economista de Harvard, considera o problema: The disabled are part of the far larger number of Americans who have left the labor force altogether since the recession, and who don’t seem to be coming back. About 88.9 million people in the U.S. are now out of the labor force, 2.4 million more than a year ago and 11.4 million more than in 2006. Thirty years ago, there was a 40-to-1 ratio between the total labor force and those workers receiving Social Security disability payments. Today that ratio is less than 18-to-1. (...)The two primary alternative hypotheses for the rise are that either work has become less attractive or that disability insurance has become more attractive and available. The disability-claims approval process and the wider society itself have become more accepting of people receiving the benefits even if they have no visible ailment.