Why Should I Change (Reprise)

Well, a lot of you probably already recoginzed it, but I finally confirmed the origin of the quotation in Why Should I Change, He’s the One Who Sucks … it’ from the movie Office Space. One of the all-time great movies.

Proportions, What’s That?

You know, the US has lost all sense of proportionality. It’s been going on for a long time, but it’s really getting out of hand … as if it wasn’t already.

The print edition of USA Today issue for Monday, 30 July, 2007, had on the front page an article headlined Disabled worker cases at a record. This article describes the ludicrous waits that have become normal for workers appealing denial of their disability claims to the Social Security Administration. On the top of page 3, occupying about two-thirds of the “above the fold” area, is another article about deaths at railroad crossings.

In the former article, they describe waits for disability claim appeals that run from seventeen months to thirty-one months, depending on location. In the latter, they bemoan that about one person per day dies at a railroad crossing in the US.

The former article notes that sixty-five percent of disability claims are initially denied. Of those sixty-five percent, sixty-two percent are subsequently approved on appeal … for a total of over forty percent of the original claims. It also notes that due to the delays in the appeals process, compounded by the initial denial rate, no small number of people die while waiting for their disability claim appeal to run its course, two-thirds of the time resulting in a reversal of the original denial.

The latter article spends a lot of time whining about the 368 deaths in 2006 that occurred at railroad crossings. It doesn't mention the fraction of those deaths directly attributable to the vast stupidity of the drivers and pedestrians killed. Now, I would never claim that all of those killed took the eternal dirt nap due to their own stupidity, but I'd surely like to know the fraction. Because my experience and the news reports that I've seen make it seem like it’s a pretty large fraction of those 368.

But we’ve got some special interests that have a hair up their ass about one person per day dying at railroad crossings. I’d venture to guess that at least 250 of those people died because they’re fucking S-T-U-P-I-D.

But where are those same whiny assholes when some poor bastard dies penniless, and gets planted in a pauper’s grave, waiting for the SSA appeals process to rectify a decision that often had more to do with bureaucratic incompetence than the merits of the claim?

It’s just stupid.

These are the same idiots who whine incessantly about the death rate on the nation’s highways while they write the check for the next car payment for the brand new 300 horsepower sportscar they gave their sixteen-year-old child. Who will probably go out within a few weeks and contribute to the death of their passengers or some poor innocent bastard trying to get to work to feed their kids … again due to the stupidity of the child in question.

So, while I feel deeply for the families and relatives of the 368, I really have to wonder if those whiny idiots can actually ever get their heads out of their asses and see the forest for the trees.

Links

• USA Today
• Social Security Administration