Permanent Disability On The Rise

David Brooks:

The number of Americans on the permanent disability rolls, meanwhile, has steadily increased. Ten years ago, 5 million Americans collected a federal disability benefit. Now 8.2 million do. That costs taxpayers $115 billion a year, or about $1,500 per household.

Tyler Cowen comments:

The rise in disability comes across a time horizon when jobs are becoming much safer and health care is improving.

Which suggests the rise in "disability" is not real. We should expect a drop. So what's up with that?

I strongly suspect disability is being granted more liberally than it used to be.

Some people would rather shirk
than work.