This American Life-Trends with Benefits (Economy and work) listen to this podcast and answer the following questions regarding work and disability:
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/490/trends-with-benefits (Links to an external site.)
1. Think about work and what jobs are available to people with lower levels of education. Why does Dr. Timberlake ask his patients for their level of education when determining their eligibility for disability?
2. Explain and make sure you identify why unemployment numbers decreased since Clinton’s 1996 Welfare Reform. Why are the numbers of children on SSI/Disability going up? What is the difference between welfare and disability?
3. What role do lawyers, the private sector, and states play when it comes to the increasing disability numbers? Explain what is going on (aka HOW are people getting on disability)?
4. Connect the dots for me, why would this podcast matter on a chapter about work and the economy? Why would it be a problem that the disability numbers went up and welfare numbers went down? What does this say about the transformation of the economy?