The title of this article comes partially from a conversation I’m currently having with a reader who asked for some Living in the Philippines answers.
Among other issues and background information this fellow opened up to me about was the fact that he had no job, because he had injured his back. He also made the almost off-handed comment that getting paid disability payments for a bad back is difficult.
Well, I’m not trying to insult him, or anyone else out there with a bad back, but dammit it is supposed to be difficult to get disability for a bad back … and why should having a bad back make it impossible to earn a gainful living?
For 10 years or more now I have fielded lots of comments and questions expressing people’s difficulties, fears and the obstacles they see in coming to the Philippines (I almost never hear from the successful ones, they just do it), mainly I hear from the ones “on the cusp” who are looking for someone else to influence them, good or bad.
Anyway. it amazed me recently just how many Americans have written me over the past 10 years or so and brought up the problem of a bad back. Thinking back, it’s really amazing to me. We, as a country, must have totally lost our backbone, so to speak. I think rather than an obesity epidemic we have a weak back epidemic … doctors out there, are you listening?
Well my main point here is, what I said earlier about disabilities, bad backs and working.
If you have a bad back, chronic pain, afflictions like that, you have my condolences. I don’t like pain, and I imagine very few people reading this do.
But over the years I have found out quite a few things about pain, and one thing I have found out is, building and rearranging your life around it seldom makes the pain any better. A great many people live with chronic pain by focusing on what they can do and ignoring what they can’t.
You should, if you’re a regular reader here, realize where this is going . Today’s post is a participatory exercise. First, go here:
http://philfaqs.com/editorials/phils-editorals/why-were-broke-and-how-to-fix-it/
I’m not going to write the same message over and over. If your problem in life is that you don’t have a job, and in particular you can’t move to the Philippines because of not having a job, then read the article I just linked to. You don’t need a job, and as a matter of fact, this new … it certainly wasn’t our American way back in my father’s time … habit of being who our jobs are or are not, rather than who we are and is depressing and wrong. You don’t need a job!
Second, go hear and have a read for meaning. Don’t start off a spring-loaded that Dave is wrong, read the reasons and reflect a bit about the desirability and supposed “stability” of a job before you form your considered opinion.
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/07/10-reasons-you-should-never-get-a-job/
And if you are still single-mindedly pursuing that “jobs for Americans in the Philippines’ dram, no matter what I have written here:
http://philfaqs.com/live-there/philippine-jobs/basics-of-working-in-the-philippines-for-foreigners/
Or here:
http://philfaqs.com/live-there/philippine-jobs/about-that-job-in-the-philippines-you-want-part-1/
Or pay some attention to what my friend Bob said, perhaps more eloquently, here:
http://liveinthephilippines.com/content/2010/06/getting-real-about-jobs-in-the-philippines/
Now, suppose, in spite of what I have written, and what Steve and Bob have said, you feel that you, yourself, are still hopelessly mired in this “I can’t live without a job” quagmire
For goodness sakes then save your children, OK? let’s not raise yet another generation who thinks that the only way to make your way in life is to slave at a job that requires a strong back … it just ain’t so, and I think you’ll like the video.
And just in case learning to fly, at a price you can afford, has made you interested in coming to the Philippines (if not now, when?), and you want insider info that can save you real money how you could still afford to fly you might be interesting in this: "If you are planning a vacation, wish you could visit distant family or just want to see the world then my guide is for you. I give you all the essentials on how to get Extremely Cheap Flights , tell you the scams to avoid and reveal all of the biggest money saving and confidential insider secrets the airlines have threatened me to keep silent about…"
Popularity: 11% [?]
http://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/11492499920 : The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary.
@ Ray, ha ha I like that line. So true, so very true.
A guy I sailed with named Pete, had been a Merchant seaman about 8 years. He somewhat hurt his back, and the ship flew him to the states to be attended to. While there he met a “Sea Lawyer” [You know; the guy with all the answers and no degree.] Sea Lawyer tells Pete to claim permanent injury and live his life on workman’s Comp. Pete being the dullest light on the circuit, heads to the Philippines to live the life. Three years later the benefits ran out, (He thought they were forever) No sweat, he’ll just go back to sea. “Sorry Pete, your back is in no shape to ride ships anymore”, he’s told. He now is a Security Guard for WalMart in Dallas Texas, trying to figure a way back to the Philippines. I often wonder if he ever found the Sea Lawyer and thanked him.
Same story with suitable variations has been around a long tie, Paul. Injuries and illness can happen to anyone, but I have always been so surprised to learn how many people seem to welcome disability ratings and even seek them out
The Philippines is particularly full of these cases … guys who are “paper disabled” and come here to live high on the disability payments. One day the check doesn’t come and then their whole life comes apart.
My view is, you don’t need a back to be able to support yourself … you need initiative instead. We’re seeing the beginning of the end on a lot of these cases in today’s world I think. Most disability/workman’s comp money comes from the individual states, and by and large, they are broke. Many states are cutting payments or eliminating them altogether … it’s going to be a bad time for those who are truly incapable of earning. For those who want to get hooked up with a check and let the remaining workers in your state fund your Philippine adventures? I’d advice thinking that plan through a little more thoroughly.
Dave
You just touched a nerve.
Yea lets cut back/cut off the payments for the people that were injured at work and continue to suffer with constant pain , lets pay a 70k state worker to videotape the injured workers so maybe we can catch them doing something that they shouldn’t be doing then we can stop their benefits and force them to hire a Lawyer that they cannot afford to fight for benefits. OK so we saved some money now we can give welfare/ food stamps to all the welfare mamma’s that pump out illegitimate kids and say they don’t know who the father is so they get support from the state, hey lets give them healthcare while we are at it. Hmm the welfare limits are up, lets pump out another kid and start the process all over.
Hi Neal,
I hear what you are saying, but let’s reign in the vitriol a bit, shall we. I don’t want to discuss US politics, policies and all that some many “know” are “wrong” in the USA. There about 10,000 + sites for angry men, or so it seems … I’m not on a one of them.
One thing you should be happy about is … there’s no workman’s comp to debate and no support what-so-ever for single mothers in the Philippines, so that ought to ratchet down the level of “nerve touching”
Anyway, the point I am trying to make has nothing to do with compensation for back pain, it has to do with people who won’t use their imagination enough to realize there are many jobs one can do without any strength or mobility at all in the back … but the barrier to entry usually revolves around the fact you have to learn something new, though. Godspeed.
Vitriol? I never heard that word.
I got the gist of it and I agree, a lot of people with disabiling pain issues work very hard at not working they choose to play the game. While others that are confined to a wheel chair still contribute to the economy by working.
The system is wrong but the individuals that work the system are even worse.
“Angry” not me as it does no good.
Pardon me for thinking you were just a wee bit peved at “welfare moms” then, Neal. My mistake.
On the day in mention I was on one of my “Rants” about the system.
It was brought on by the my NEW neighbors that rented the house next door to me.
No one there works, kids running around out the wazoo and they drive a better car than me. Not to mention the inside scoop on them from my fellow MailMan.
Let me end before I get worked up again.
On the good side I took the Indians at Foxwoods for 300 today, “Mabuhay”
Well anytime money shifts from the casino’s pocket to yours it’s a good day indeed, Neal. If you’re ever at Foxwoods while they are taping a World Poker Tour even, stick your face over the rail and wave … Mita and I are big WPT watchers. Poker, now that casinos have finally ‘discovered it’ is about the only reason I wold go in a casino. Got no use for the rest of the games, but I’m glad things worked out for you.
Sorry Philly, unless you are speaking from experience, you’re out of line.
Unless you know what it’s like to spend 24/7/365 in agonizing pain due to your L4/L5 disc aggravating your Sciatic nerve, causing you agony and preventing you from sleeping more than 1-2 hours at a stretch, then you’re not in a position to speak on the subject.
I, too, have a bad back from years of hard physical work when I was younger and although I moved into IT in my early 30′s, the wear and tear of my youthful labors have left me in crippling pain, unable to sleep, and difficult to focus on the simplest task at hand.
It’s easy to say “It can’t be that bad” when it’s not you.
Well, it isn’t that bad – it’s much worse.
Far worse than you can even imagine.
The pain is ALWAYS with you, 24/7/365
Your constant “companion” that never leaves you alone or lets you forget.
Surgery?
A temp fix at best and one that often makes things even worse.
Pain meds?
Habit forming and ineffective after a tolerance is built to them. (And tolerance builds very rapidly, even when used as directed.)
Besides, who wants to be a “functioning junkie” even if it’s “legal junk”?
Being in pain is one thing. Being in pain and not getting more than a few hours of sleep per night for weeks at a time is another and makes it very difficult to perform even simple tasks.
Stay up for 3 nights in a row with little to no sleep, then smash both your thumbs with a hammer, then say “it can’t be that bad”
Unless you’ve been there, you’ll never know…
Hi Peter,
Sorry sir, I am not “out of line”. Your well written response does a great job of proving my point … which you seem to hav emessed in your apparent need to take personally that which was not meant personally.
Surely, for as long as the human race exists, there will be people who can’t be helped. Even Christ himself told us so.
In your case, you seem to have a very bad case of pain and I am sorry for you and wish you peace and relief someday.
However, that being said, the very fact that you are surfing the web, reading blogs, planning a trip to or a life in the Philippines, and that you can write coherently, passionately and to the point, proves my point.
I did NOT say folks who have serious back problems do not suffer. I DID say, and I say again, that medical problems are not a license to give up and live the rest of one’s life in second place, dependent upon what others will give. Pain does not take away pride, unless you let it.
I’d also submit two things for you to consider … and to write back about if you care to … do you realize how many people earn a living writing their passion without ever using their back?).
Point One: You’re very blessed in life. If you don’t believe me, take a trip, painful back and all, to your nearest veteran’s hospital and visit with a guy with his face and hands blown off, or a young woman waiting to heal enough to go home to her children with only one arm left of all her extremities. You have continual pain. Again, I’m sorry, but again, you are blessed compared to those who serve for you.
Point Two: In the past ten plus years I have probably corresponded with more than 1,000 people living on compensation for problems with their back. As I typed that I stopped and went back and did some random checking of old messages I had saved, becuase I thought I might be getting a bit carried away with that “thousand” number.
Nope, after doing some checking I’d say the figure is not exaggerated, but conservative.
I am sure some of those people suffered from severe pain. Agian, my sympoathy to all of them.
I will also say, (and many times my evidence comes from their own mouths), that is was not pain itself that was keeping them from working … but the fact that they had been, say, a roofer, and they no longer could climb and lift heavy loads becuase of their basck injuries.
Their whole life thnen ahd become a quest for a place to live on $1100 a month (or whatever their actual compemsation was) instead of figuring out what they could be aside from a roofer or whatever they had been before. To me, that is a waste of human talent far more tragic than an injury which causes pain, even constant pain
“Making do” and taking last place in the line when you actually have great talents God has given you .. that’s the real tragedy. Godspeed.