The Greek government is being denounced by the National Confederation of Disabled People after it added pedophiles, exhibitionists, and kleptomaniacs to the list of disabled people entitled to state benefits. They have joined pyromaniacs, compulsive gamblers, fetishists and sadomasochists as persons entitled to ask for government assistance.
For example, a pyromaniac or pedophile is now entitled to disability pay up to 35 percent while a diabetic is entitled to only 10 percent disability. Presumably, a diabetic pedophile could received 45 percent disability, so it would be a curious benefit for diabetics to claim an interest in children or fires or both.
As Greece struggles with demands to reduce its bloated state funding, this is not a useful step. In Greece, one out of five workers is a state employee, a whooping 20 percent of the working population. The state is having to cut benefits for citizens. I am all in favor of paying for treatment for pedophiliacs and kleptomaniacs, but should it be treated as a disability? What do you think?
Source: ABC
In the United States, pedophiles can’t work either. They have to tell people what they’re convicted of, and once that happens no one will hire them. But we don’t give them benefits either.
We’ve decided that parking our sex offenders under overpasses and waiting until they realize that they have nothing to lose by reoffending is a better idea.
Pay for treatment but don’t pay for condition as a disability unless they are otherwise disabled.
Seriously, Greece. From the land of Aristotle and Plato, that was some remarkably weak thinking on your part.
Anonymously Yours 1, January 10, 2012 at 10:15 am
Dredd,
If they put oil … in it …
==============================
Seriously, petroleum already is in Twinkies (and about everything else):
(Link).
Germany is under pressure to prop up the Greeks in order to save the Euro and the overall European economy. Great Britain was recently chastised for not jumping in to prop up the Euro and the Greeks and the rest of Europe. The U.S. is under pressure to do things to prop up the Greeks, the Germans, the Brits, the Euro, the Europe overall economy. This is a good example of the admonition that you cant save stupid. But where does one draw the line of demarkation for stupid? The fact that Greece has its own system of social benefits separate from that of Germany is a telling example. If Germany does not want to subsidize the child rapists then they should not share a currency with Greece. By contrast the U.S. has a common border with Canada and Mexico and a NAFTA Treaty regarding trade. But we do not share a common currency. Europe, or much of it, jumped into this Euro experiment. Great Britain stayed out. It would be far more difficult for dissolution of the experiment if Britain and more countries had jumped into the pool. The rest of us on the sidelines have been waiting for Greece and the other P.I.G. countries (Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain) to get their act together. Greece chose to get their act together by subsiding the child rape act. The U.S., Britain, and Germany cannot now stop the disintegration of the Euro. It is time for Germany to go back to the Deutschmark, France, Italy, and the rest to their respective currencies. The Greeks can then fall off the cliff more coherently and land on their respectively penetrated and now flattened arses. The kids in the 5thGrade say no to subsidizing these schmucks.
Wow! So, if I steal some childporn while low on sugar, would I be getting an 80% disability? They may have problems, but you gotta like the benefits.
oil in it…
Dredd,
If they put oil init…they could then qualify for subsidies….and they’d have a protected market….
Anonymously Yours 1, January 10, 2012 at 8:33 am
On Greater concerns…..
==============================================
Gives new meaning to the “Twinkie Defense” in upcoming Twinkie litigation in that case.
Perhaps if they quit putting oil in Twinkies, their Twinkiedom could continue?
Chinese “food ingredients” are like mutant Japanese veggies following the Fukushima “experiment.”
One wonders if Greece forbids the consumption of Twinkies as a requirement for diabetics staying on the disability rolls?
Like the Professor said “it might be useful for diabetics to claim an interest in child [sic] or fires or both” … yeah would they get extra if they burned children while eating Twinkies?
I believe society should assume the cost of treatment if for no other reason than to protect itself as much as possible but providing a roof over their heads, food on their table, and clothes on their backs is their’s and their family’s responsibility.
On Greater concerns…..and this is off of FOX/FAUX news so it may not be true……Say it ain’t so…..
Twinkies Maker to File for Bankruptcy Again: Report
Hostess Brands Inc, a wholesale baker, is again preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this week, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
This would be second court restructuring for Ripplewood Holdings-owned Hostess, which filed for bankruptcy almost two years ago and had emerged from it last September.
Irving, Texas-based Hostess has arranged for about $75 million in debtor-in-possession financing to keep it afloat during bankruptcy proceedings, the sources told the paper.
Once in bankruptcy court, the maker of Twinkies and Wonder Bread will try to reduce debt and renegotiate labor contracts, the newspaper said.
http://www.foxbusiness.com/industries/2012/01/10/twinkies-maker-to-file-for-bankruptcy-again-report/
Here, only banksters qualify.
“I am all in favor of paying for treatment for pedophiliacs and kleptomaniacs, but should it be treated as a disability? What do you think?”
No
OS,
Noted….
twency,
Yes…New math….or old school wall street….but its better than saying “I like firing people”…..
“one out of five workers is a state employee, a whooping 25 percent of the working population.”
Must be that new math…
AY, in the USA, the Social Security Administration’s Disability Determination Service (DDS) has very specific criteria. Basically, the person must be unable to work five days a week, eight hours a day, on a more or less continuous basis.
If the person is only able to work a maximum of part time due to a mental or physical problem, then they may be disabled. If they cannot do any job at all on a full time basis, then they are probably disabled. Most people think of a disability as being a physically crippling disorder. There are many others. For example, the agoraphobic who cannot leave the house due to severe anxiety and panic. Or the mentally ill who are really the walking wounded of our society.
There are people who would like to get on disability and just not work, but their numbers are far less than some right wing politicians would have you believe. Most people, in my experience, want to work. When they are forced to apply for disability benefits, find being on disability demeaning and depressing.
Since we have the problem of PIGS…. Portugal…Italy….Greece and Spain…..(or Sweden)…and the potential to bring down the US markets….we best pay close attention to what they do and say…
Not in this case out of Humanistic concerns., but the financial ability to survive….If the wave hits as I suspect…we will have a toppling market about March 2012….Just in time for March madness…another bad time in the country….
Now on the other hand….If Germany…one of the strongest financially sounds economic institutions at the present time cannot sell bonds or raise money based upon the fears of where the EURO is headed….we have more things coming…that we best be set for….
I suppose a global market is good for the banksters…..but not the average citizens….
A disability classification is supposed to be based upon some sound criteria….I am not schooled in what is or s not a disability….best leave that to the ones that profess such knowledge….
Disability should be based on a person’s physical or mental ability to work. If the disorder is sufficient to make them truly disabled and treatment not help, then perhaps they are disabled.
In this country, we place sex offenders in a Catch 22 situation. They are told where they can live, where they can travel and are publicly branded on the internet where any background search reveals them. Many are limited to living under bridges, homeless, broke and unemployable. There has to be a better way.
Looking at pyromaniacs, a simple question. If you run a business, would you be willing to take a chance on hiring a compulsive firestarter? Or compulsive thief?
Mental health treatment has been the red-headed stepchild for all too long. Insurance unwilling to pay for needed treatment. Where there is treatment, it often takes weeks or months to get an appointment. Many mental health centers have a policy of not treating sex offenders of any kind, and in fact, do not want to treat convicted felons for any condition that made them a felon in the first place. Compulsions are notoriously hard to treat successfully–look at smoking cessation, alcohol treatment and drug rehabilitation programs. Their success rate is dismal when compared with treatment of depression and anxiety disorders.
This is puzzling – what the heck could they be thinking? I could see labeling some of these things as a disability requiring medical treatment but they wouldn’t interfere with earning a livelihood. I’d like to hear the justification.
Wow! I guess you just to steal something in order to get “paid” extra in Greece!