"Disability": Making Not Working Acceptable

This is what the removal of stigma has accomplished in our country: "How did this happen? For starters, we allowed it. It has become socially acceptable in some parts of America to not work when you actually could, and instead to collect a check from the taxpayers. And in some parts of America, this is utterly commonplace. In Hale County, Ala., according to a recent NPR series, nearly one in four working-age adults is on disability. And on the day their checks arrive, NPR noted, 'banks stay open late, Main Street fills up with cars, and anybody looking to unload an old TV or armchair has a yard sale.' Things have got to be pretty bad if NPR is doing a series on the issue." What a sad state of affairs when people are actually encouraged to sign up for all these benefits. Aren't people ashamed anymore? And what happened to men, who used to work at any job to provide for their own families, and who found it humiliating to be on the dole?  Let's hope this "new normal" becomes old very soon, or this will become a permanent condition from which America won't recover.