Recession is a stress test for the American safety net
In an op-ed in The New York Times, Barbara Ehrenreich describes the over stretched safety net that may be at the breaking point. She opines that “the recession has done for the government safety net pretty much what Hurricane Katrina did for the Federal Emergency Management Agency: it’s demonstrated that you can be clinging to your roof with the water rising, and no one may come to helicopter you out.”
She highlights “the case of Kristen and Joe Parente, Delaware residents who had always imagined that people turned to government for help only if ‘they didn’t want to work.’” After Joe is injured and unable to work the family confronts the worst struggle of their life.Unable to qualify for Medicaid or pay for an MRI to secure disability benefits Joe becomes depressed.
When their “7-year-old’s class was asked to write out what wish they would ask of a genie, should one appear. Brianna’s wish was for her mother to find a job because there was nothing to eat in the house, an aspiration that her teacher deemed too disturbing to be posted on the wall with the other children’s.”
Ms. Ehrenreich describes how “some recipients have taken to calling the assistance program ‘Torture and Abuse of Needy Families.’ From the start, the experience has been ‘humiliating,’ Kristen said. ‘The caseworkers ‘treat you like a bum – they act like every dollar you get is coming out of their own paychecks.’”
We are not saying we agree with all of the opinions in he article, but we do recommend this as a must read.
To read the full article click here.
The link also includes audio of Kristen and Joe Parente.
