A SIDEWAYS TAKE ON THE INCREASE IN SSDI ENROLMENT

I agree with Matt Yglesias' observation that " It's not that people's medical condition worsens forcing them onto disability, instead their economic prospects worsen which forces them onto disability" and this factoid is consilient with that remark:

US has lost 2m clerical jobs since 2007
By Robin Harding in Washington
April 1, 2013 8:24 pm
FINANCIAL TIMES

The US has gained 387,000 managers and lost almost 2m clerical jobs since 2007, as new technologies replace office workers and plunge the American middle class deeper into crisis.

The shift shows how hard it will be for policy makers to halt or reverse the rise in income inequality. Clerical workers still account for 16 per cent of US jobs but technology will probably keep on eliminating them.

My point is that many of the people who lost manufacturing jobs because they could no longer do them also can't find less physically demanding work even if they could do it.