To the editor:
On June 21, 2021, NBC News ran an article entitled, “Since 9/11, military suicides dwarf the number of soldiers killed in combat.” Our grossly under-compensated disabled veterans are not surprised.
I know what disabled veterans think. They think that their lousy quality of life due to deliberate underpayment of adequate compensation to them for their disabilities is part of the problem.
Disabled veterans have low quality of life due to the unwillingness of Congress or any administration in living memory and beyond to compensate them fairly.
The fact is that huge numbers of disabled veterans are in a dire situation all over the country relative to financial health because they have little to no physical health with which they can work their way out of dire poverty. About 20 of them commit suicide every day. I am not sure how many attempt it but do not succeed.
In 2021, a totally-disabled veteran with no dependents is compensated at the ridiculous rate of $39,097.92 annually. The National Average Wage Index for 2019 is $54,099.99 per annum and the median income in 2019 was $68,703.
In 2020, the per-capita gross domestic product of the USA was about $62,000 a year, among the highest in the world. So why are our disabled veterans being compensated at such a miserly level?
Disabled veterans are not idiots. They clearly understand that they are being undercompensated in order to save the top of the wealth pyramid from proper taxation. In essence, they are being forced to heavily subsidize the American defense Industry by their radically minimal compensation. They are essentially being used to prop up the perpetual war machine. Their quality of life stinks.
Serious in-Service disability guarantees a lifetime of certain and lingering poverty and social isolation, underemployment, and/or unemployment to the average disabled veteran. The chicken feed that we pay them for compensation is outright insulting and it is going to cause violence.
The Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) increase for disabled veterans’ compensation for 2021 is only a miniscule one. The COLA system for our disabled veterans clearly is not working.
Will disabled veterans’ chronic undercompensation finally be addressed fairly this year?
Compensate our totally and permanently disabled veterans at least at the level of the National Average Wage Index and do it in the 117th Congress. Compensate our other disabled veterans fairly.
Joseph Harris
Quincy
