Random Spiel, Been Thinking About How There's A Lack of Incentives to be Honest

There's an issue about people not qualifying for persons with disability ID cards abusing the benefits and this costs the government a loss in potential tax revenue along with businesses.

Inspiration for the post:

Fake PWD IDs lost gov’t P88 billion in taxes in 2023 —Gatchalian

Coincidentally, people that use disability IDs that have no disability have been a recent topic in the department way before this article surfaced. We noticed a recent trend in patients asking for medical certificates to qualify for these ID's when their condition doesn't qualify them at all. But as the article suggests, it's a lucrative business for people forging documents and there's a high demand for it.

I could understand seniors getting some discounts over their purchased but willful liars about their condition has to be somewhere at the top of the list of shitbags in society. Who exactly suffers when tax revenue goes down? everyone, because low collection convinces the government they have to borrow money somewhere else and when they do borrow money, everyone pays the fine. This can come in the form of more taxes or cost cutting of essential programs. The real losers here are those that don't bother playing dirty and actually not use the disability card they don't qualify for.

I got nothing against people holding disability cards but if one is diagnosed with an anxiety disorder that has been functional for years now, they don't need the card otherwise they shouldn't even be driving their car at all.

From the economics standpoint, it's easy to see a discount of around ~20% for your purchases is tempting and paying as someone living without a disability is for losers. These people know how to game the system and are incentivized to do it. The consequences are so little and petty in fines that it can be worthwhile until stricter measures are made which makes it more difficult for people that actually need the benefit apply. It's just a lose-lose situation overall and the guilt is diffused to the masses because if you're not doing it, someone else is and they're getting the most out of it mentality.

So this gets me thinking about how much people can be live with their own hypocrisy while having no insight about what they do. How the same people may complain about the government being corrupt while practicing, in their own little ways, evading the tax man. I mean, you can have your opinions about the government being corrupt and that's fine, but it would certainly hold more weight if you were a responsible citizen that plays by the rules.

Unfortunately, doing the right thing has few economic incentives as others are taking advantaged of a loophole while you don't. I think it's a culture thing since this mindset isn't anything new and has been existing for generations here and almost everywhere in the world.

I'm just airing it out since I've been asked to make some medical certificates for some questionable reasons patients present sometimes, like asking for a few days of rest because they really want to use the time for vacation instead of "coping up with their depression or anxiety". I tell you, patients lie and sometimes they can twist their own stories just to make you look bad even when you are playing by the rule book that no means it's against policy to comply with what they are asking.

Things as petty as not coming in for follow up during the expected schedule or suddenly feeling better after days of taking a medication that's supposed to take weeks before seeing an expected therapeutic response. It just grinds my gears sometimes, that they come in again reporting not feeling any better but aren't actually taking meds as prescribed and making it sound like it's your fault or the meds fault for their noncompliance.

Thanks for your time.