The story about the downs teen sitting in the chair is very sad.

I'm not sure if society wise the solution to that is aborting him from the start though.

I worry that's the road to a eugenics themed society.

Like to take it to extremes...my life is pathetic from the perspective of a wealthy person living in Monaco...but I'd rather fix my life than be put out of my misery.  Easier said than done I guess though.

mitchejw wrote:

James wrote:

One of my ex drug dealers had two special needs kids with his second wife. He pulled in several grand a month just on them.

Without hesitation... absolutely.

Part of it boils down to what Flagg mentioned...

Who takes care of them when you're dead?

Reminds me of what happened to my mom when she worked at a place in MO that took care of the disabled when she was between careers....

She cleaned up the facility... including doing their laundry. She had to go to their rooms. In one room was a teenage boy who just sat in an empty room in his wheelchair... doing nothing. He got no visitors and nobody else cared. She used to come home and cry thinking about him. Years later she would wonder if he's still alive and sitting in that chair.

That is horrifying. No one deserves an existence like that. Abort him.

Your first comment about your ex drug dealer getting all kinds of money needs evidence. I serve this population and i have no idea what you’re talking about.

It's not hard to figure out....

SSI

That's two grand(maybe more) right there

Maybe another disability check as well

Welfare (maybe a grand, not sure how much you'd get)

Cherries on top....

I think he got some kind of grant for a local school for special ed

Food stamps

That's entering lower middle class lifestyle right there... especially when you factor in he was on SSI, and his wife and two teenagers got welfare.

Imagine how much total food stamps he got for a family of six.

He owned two new cars(electric) and also owned a Dodge Ram. Lived in a nice house too.

I still don't understand how he was able to own all this stuff while on public assistance...but not that surprising. My aunt Teresa and her husband owned a home in the late 90s-early 2000s and they were also on SSI and welfare.

He used to joke about not even needing to deal drugs....and I finally realized it wasn't really a joke. Like most drug dealers, he was mainly dealing to feed his own addiction. The trickle of cash coming in from drugs was pure gravy to the main course of government money.