No, SMA you are not a valid target at all. And you are not 'less' and please don't think that everyone thinks so. For ever nutter who shouts at you in the street or labels you, there are many thousands who do not, and just quietly empathise. I would not want to live in a country where people in your situation were left to the mercy of charities.
But for some sections of society where there is endemic, complex and seemingly hopeless levels of uselessness and lack of motivation like the ones you have mentioned, too much empathy and understanding can just perpetuate the cycle of disadvantage and over-reliance on the state. They need practical help to become employable, yes, and they need encouragement and mentoring to aspire to realistic goals, they don't need patronising with lifelong no-strings handouts that enable them to maintain the status quo. But sometimes that 'encouragement' needs to be delivered with a bit of a push, or nothing changes.
I am of course talking about people who have no physical or mental disability or long term condition that prevents them from working regularly, and becoming self-reliant.
I'm talking about people who don't even attempt to seriously look for work, unless it's big bucks in the back pocket for relatively little effort. You know - those people who are just too damned sniffy about what they will and won't do, even though they have no real skill or experience or educational achievement to offer an employer, because they know they can get the same or more money for doing nowt. (Hence why we have so many lovely hard working Eastern Europeans in our shops and restaurants and fields and factories.)
I'm not suggesting we stop feeding or housing the long-term unemployed, or carry out enforced abortions, or put them in the workhouse, or any of the other things I generally get accused of on these threads.
I just think it's about time we started laying down a few more ground rules, and expecting a bit more in return from those who are frankly, a bit too comfortable with their lot, and see no reason to change it.
And please don't tell me I'm generalising, and tarring everyone with the same brush. You all know the people I mean, even if it irks you to say it!
And you say your sons are not 'financially invalid'. In my experience people with chronic disabilities or learning difficulties or other serious issues generally want to work, and go to great lengths to make a valid contribution in whatever way they can. And of course provision should always be be made to enable them to do that to the best of their ability, and to subsidise them if necessary. And we should be compassionate, if sadly, financial independence is not within anyone's their grasp.
But again, they are not who my thoughts were directed at, are they?