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From the Executive Summary: Beginning in the 1930s, the U S government established social safety net programs to protect American workers from sickness, unemployment, poverty, and unsafe working conditions Over the years, however, those programs have been reduced and restricted, providing less and less actual protection Now, as our nation\'s economy craters in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, federal and state officials scramble-- paper clips and duct tape in hand--to stand up the wreckage of these social insurance programs Nursing home and meat packing workers continue to labor under conditions that threaten to infect them with coronavirus, while the federal government refuses to issue mandatory workplace safety standards to protect them Millions of unemployment insurance claims suffocate under backlogs of applications at state agencies whose funding was long ago cut not just down to-- indeed into--the bone As workers lose their jobs, they lose their health insurance coverage as well, just as their risk of incurring catastrophic medical expenses skyrockets The coronavirus pandemic has also pulled back the curtain on an often unexplored dimension of the U S economy and its workforce: the level of unprotection the government affords the millions of people working in the \'gig\' economy, which includes freelancers, independent contractors, and project-based \'platform\' workers such as Uber and Lyft drivers Labor supply;COVID-19 (Disease);Employees
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