Beyond Ramps

Book excerpt: The Social Contract -- Rousseau's famous term concerning the bond between a government and it's people -- has been sold to the highest bidder. Freedom is reserved only for markets in a society increasingly strangled by corporate of power.Empowerment is the new definition of destitution.By looking at the struggles of the disabled faced with the end of social services, Ending the Social Contract as We Know It provides a powerful warning: the disabled are as canaries in a coal mine, and their maltreatment is a harbinger of things to come for the rest of us.In a tightly woven argument, Marta Russell shows how the onslaught of corporate power facing the disabled -- from issues like genetic screening, to restricted access to health care, to welfare reform -- will shortly be faced by a much broader segment of society.