CONTACT CAROLINE
facebook
rss
tumblr
twitter
goodreads
youtube

  • Home
  • Write Away Blog
  • Books
    • Books
    • Trompe l’Oeil
    • Heart Land
    • Gothic Spring
    • Ballet Noir
    • Book Excerpts
  • Video Interviews
  • Press
    • News
    • Print Interviews
    • Plays
    • Ballet Noir in the Press
    • Trompe l’Oeil In The Press
    • Gothic Spring In The Press
    • Heart Land Reviews
  • Contact
  • About
  • Resources
    • Writer Resources
    • Favorite Blogs
    • Favorite Artists



Unemloyment Becomes A Disability in America

Jan 09, 2017
by Caroline Miller
2008 financial crisis, Brendan Greely, diminishing safety net, long term unemployment, Social Security Disability Insurance, The Disabled American Worker, unemployment becomes a disablity
0 Comment

When the housing bubble broke, taking with it the entire US economy, a number of people who thought they were middle class discovered they were poor.  Worse, they also discovered the safety net was so porous that many of them ended up with no job, no health insurance and a rapidly dwindling unemployment income. Some of them pieced together consulting work, took part-time jobs or left the state to look for new employment.  When the money ran out, they turned to Social Security’s disability insurance.  That program for the physically and mentally impaired became the failsafe when income sources ran out.  (“The Disabled American Worker,” by Brendan Greely, Bloomberg Businessweek, Dec.  19-25, 2016, pg. 24.)

Courtesy of www.inkcinct.com.au

A map showing disability applications by states shows that areas hardest hit were Appalachia and the south, parts of the country impacted by our international trade agreements with China and Mexico.  (Ibid pg. 24.)  

 As writer Brendan Greely observes, the government’s failure to take meaningful aim at long-term unemployment  has left an insurance program overloaded with people who can’t find work.

 With an improving economy, some disability recipients could move off the rolls. But doing so poses risks, not only because one stands to lose a secure income stream, but also because leaving means losing health care coverage. (Ibid pg. 25)  With a Congress determined to slash assistance programs further, those who could work have no incentive to withdraw and gamble with their future.

What’s happened to disability Insurance since the 2008 financial debacle is a wake up call for the Congress and the nation.  As automation sucks  air out of the labor market, chronic, long-term unemployment is inevitable.  Elected leaders who see this problem through a political lens will take us nowhere.  Voters who vent their anger at the ballot box won’t be of help, either.  

 

Social Share

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

*
*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.

Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015

Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens.  She also published the story Gustav Pavel,  a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.

Caroline has published four novels

  • Ballet Noir
  • Trompe l’Oeil
  • Gothic Spring
  • Heart Land

Subscribe to Caroline’s Blog


 

Archives

Categories

YouTube-logo-inline2 To access and subscribe to my videos on YouTube, Click Here and click the Subscribe button.

Banner art “The Receptive” by Charlie White of Charlie White Studio

Web Admin: ThinPATH Systems, Inc
support@tp-sys.com

Subscribe to Caroline's Blog


 

Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Sitemap | Privacy Notice

AUDIO & VIDEO VAULT

View archives of Caroline’s audio and videos interviews.


Copyright © Books by Caroline Miller