Answer to Question 1
The relationship between technological breakthroughs and changes in social welfare programs generally follows this format: Technological advances foster changes in our lifestyles; lifestyle changes affect changes in our future social, financial, health, and recreational needs; and the latter changes largely determine what changes will be demanded in social service programs. Predicting what technological breakthroughs will occur and how these advances will affect our lifestyles is highly speculative. Numerous advances are being predicted: space travel to other planets, computers capable of thinking, chip-enhanced brains to increase intelligence, the end of aging, vaccines that will prevent most forms of cancer, artificial hearts and kidneys, vaccines to prevent HIV infection, robots that perform heart (and other) surgeries, tiny jolts of electricity to the brain to treat depression and seizures, and weather and climate control. Because there are more scientists involved in technological research and development now than at any other time in the history of civilization, future technological breakthroughs are likely to occur even more rapidly than in the past. Adjusting psychologically to rapid lifestyle changes is currently a major problem and will continue to be one of the most difficult adjustments people will have to make in future years.
Answer to Question 2
The depression of the 1930s brought about profound changes in social welfare. Until that time, the belief in individualism was still widely held-that is, the belief that one is the master of one's fate. The depression shattered this myth. It became clear that situations and events beyond individual control can cause deprivation, misery, and poverty. It also became clear that the federal government must play a role in providing financial assistance and social services. The experience with emergency relief and work programs during the Great Depression demonstrated the need for more permanent federal efforts in dealing with some of the critical problems of unemployment, aging, disability, illness, and dependent children. As a result, in 1935 the Social Security Act was passed, which forms the basis of most of our current public social welfare programs, and federal legislation for the following three major categories of programs was enacted: social insurance, public assistance, and public health and welfare services.
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Economic and Social Development
Created Equal: A Social and Political History of the United States, Brief Edition