Living in a time of inconvenience… with apologies to Nancy G.

"We're living in the age of communication
Where the only voices heard have money in their hands
Where greed has become a sophistication
And if you ain't got money you ain't got nothin' in this land"

From the New York Times today:

The worsening bureaucratic delays at the chronically underfunded Social Security Administration that have kept hundreds of thousands of disabled Americans from timely receipt of their Social Security disability benefits.

As laid out by Erik Eckholm in The Times on Monday, the backlog of applicants who are awaiting a decision after appealing an initial rejection has soared from 311,000 to 755,000. The average wait for an appeals hearing now exceeds 500 days, twice as long as applicants had to wait in 2000.

Typically two-thirds of those who appeal eventually win their cases. But during the long wait, their conditions may worsen and their lives often fall apart. More and more people have lost their homes, declared bankruptcy or even died while awaiting an appeals hearing.

In one poignant case described by Mr. Eckholm, a North Carolina woman who is tethered to an oxygen tank 24 hours a day has been waiting three years for a decision. She finally got a hearing last month and is awaiting a final verdict, but, meanwhile, she has lost her apartment and alternates sleeping at her daughter’s crowded house and a friend’s place.

In this world money is power. Money speaks. Money gets things done. No money - no power.

No power? No problem... Stand in line for a year and a half with the other three quarters of a million disabled people and wait your turn...

It's an inconvenient time.

Check out the link in the title to read the article... it's maddening.