M.S. Costs America!

I have made no effort to hide the fact that I have Multiple Sclerosis, and can currently type only with my NON-DOMINANT hand (I stress non-dominant, because I literally had to retrain myself to do everything with the hand that had not been used to lift so much as a fork before I developed M.S.)

Anyway, it's estimated that 400,000 Americans have MS, and that, in itself, is reason enough to understand the realities of the disease outside of the "pitiful feel-sorry-for-me images" of M.S. sufferers presented by various media.

The reason it should concern EVERYONE is because even though relatively FEW people suffer from M.S., the financial-costs M.S. incurs are barely believable...just diagnosing the disease can take years, and finalizing the diagnosis of M.S. (and eliminating the possibility of other neurological diseases) can cost hundreds-of-thousands of dollars...per patient.

And M.S. is NOT racially-distinct. It affects people of all races (preferring WHITES in temperate zones actually, even though black talk-show-host Montel Williams is probably the most well-known M.S. sufferer in the U.S.). And M.S. strikes most people in middle-adulthood (ages 30-50) so a person can live a completely normal and healthy life before presenting symptoms of M.S. at all.

Again, "it's not my problem" is exactly the WRONG ATTITUDE for a person to take regarding M.S...because many of the problems of ordinary aging are experienced by people with M.S. well-before advanced age (I became almost completely paralyzed by M.S. before I saw my 40th birthday, but almost no one cares about how disabled a "good-looking young man" can be, if the compliment isn't followed-up with the right questions).

A family can easily go bankrupt in the first few months after M.S. becomes apparent (if I had not worked so hard, and paid so much into Social Security before I was 36, I would not have enough for even my rent).

This isn't a flaw in the Social Security system...it's a result of property-owners keeping rents for their the properties at the current "market-rate" despite a lack of commensurate salary increases (yes, even the ordinary working-class are perpetually at the mercy of land-owners, but imagine NOT being able to work, and still having to pay the rent).

Anyway, I'm really thankful for the Social Security system in the United States, because in a completely capitalist economy (like ours), there are very few (legitimate) avenues of survival from which to choose.

And the well-known rant that people are basically exploiting the system may be true (to some extent), but without the "system", many otherwise capable people would not be able to survive.

Keep that in mind when you vote for your next President.

Addendum 10:45 a.m. PST
Although Montel Williams it probably the best-known M.S. sufferer, he is by no means the most famous. But one special thing about Montel is that he regularly allows his audience to see what he goes through with M.S. (even taking them on video field-trips to his neurological examinations)