Essay on History of Social Security

On August 14, 1935 in Austin, Texas, President Franklin D. Roosevelt inked his signature on the Social Security Act. It was originally implemented to resolve problems with unemployment, old age insurance, and public health and welfare. The Great Depression was the catalyst for the creation of the Social Security program, and the basic structure was very similar to Germany’s social insurance programs from the 1880s. Today, social security is mostly used for retired senior citizens starting at the age of 62. At 62, American citizens can begin to collect, but will only receive 35% of their monthly benefit due, rather than the maximum amount of 50% when they reach the full retirement age of 66. (cite) In addition, social security is dispersed to about 14 million disabled people under the age of 62, who can no longer work in the labor force for various reasons. The people who qualify as disabled are just a small percentage of those collecting compared to senior citizens, and are often not mentioned when social security issues are brought up because of their minute effects on social security distribution.

The Social Security system is perhaps the most successful government social insurance program in the nation 's history; and began with the Social Security Act in 1935. Social Security is a needed federal system that encourages income stability to millions of people across the United States. This is accomplished by giving a stable flow of income to replenish lost wages that occur as a result of disability, retirement, or death of a family member. There are about 59 million people in the U.S. that receive Social Security. Most of them are the required 65 years of age or older. Sadly about half of the 59 million people rely solely on Social Security to pay their bills and everyday necessities.

In 1935 the government started the Social Security Act which gave workers benefits if they were fired or forced to quit their job. It also gave benefits to disabled workers.(Cooper 978

In “The Social Security Problem”, Max Moore discusses the fearful reality of Social Security running out of funds. He states that the U.S. Department of the Treasury predicts that Social Security funds will run out by 2041 and action must be taken in order to prevent this (134). In his essay, he explains how the depletion of Social Security funds are a result from a decreasing retirement age, decreasing fertility rate, and shrinking work force. These things contribute to an increased population relying on Social Security, an increased population of the elderly, and a decreased ratio of workers paying for those beneficiaries (135). Moore explains the proposal of George W. Bush to make Social Security partially privatized; allowing young workers to invest their retirement savings into their own account. This would result in people putting their retirement on the line in

During the Great Depression people lost their jobs and didn 't have money available when they retired. Franklin Roosevelt wanted citizens to have money available if they became unable to work anymore or not start work at all because of an unforeseen event in their life. By reading the debate and ideas of the Act, a better understanding of how the Social Security Act came to be can be gained. The Social Security Act was created in 1935 for people that are disabled who can 't work at all and for citizens that work to have money put into social security and available after retirement. It was used to help citizens after the Great Depression who lost their jobs. This act would help citizens that work to have benefits by having employers pay into a trust fund, so money would be available to employees after they retire or become disabled while working.

I believe the United States has an economic dilemma when it comes to social security and Medicare. As our textbook states, social security is drastically underfunded. It also says that Medicare is underfunded as well. I have listened to people who talk about how there will not be enough money in social security after the millennial generation. If this is true, then my generation and other generations after me will be in a terrible situation when they can retire. Medicare, a government, insured health insurance program, is also a matter of concern. Since the Medicare fund is underfunded at a high level, people who would need the help of their Medicare plan could potentially backfire. If the funding for Medicare does not reach a level where you would not have to worry about the quality of the care, then potential health risks could become much worse without adequate resources used to treat and prevent them.

It’s a matter of either losing all that you have worked for and live in poverty when retired or allowing your hard earned dollars to grow and have a secure comfortable retirement. I believe that Social Security is a doomed Government Program and that Privatization of Social Security would allow for a more secure retirement plan for all Americans. Social Security was first created to help aging Americans in their senior years so they would not end up in poverty. Social Security was signed in as law on August 14, 1935 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and was fully operating by 1940 (SSA). Originally a retirement program, but Social Security now includes survivor benefits, disability benefits and Medicare and all together is the largest

A landmark change in providing for the elderly came in 1935 with Franklin D. Roosevelt 's Social Security Act. While this provided aid to people with disabilities and mothers with children, aid was also mainly intended for the elderly. The premise of the act was that an individual would pay into the government through the years that they worked and upon retiring that person would receive benefits. Elderly Americans relied on this system to help pay for expenses that they might incur after they reached an age where they could no

Those who think that privatizing social security will benefit the citizens who receive it are very wrong. The reason that they think that it will affect social security is because by creating private accounts, it will cause the separate interest rates for the individual person to go up or down depending on the person. This of course is unnecessary because the way it is set up right now, the individuals are receiving benefits that work for the certain situation that the person is in. Many retired citizens are not in financial crisis because of this setup, because there is nothing that is wrong with it. In the last couple of decades social security has completely transformed the way that elderly citizens in our country live their lives. According to Mortimer Zuckerman “roughly two thirds of people over 65 and older depend on social security for at least half their income, and roughly 20 percent rely on it for all their income.” These are pretty promising numbers regarding the way that the American seniors are spending their

In 1935 the Social Security Act was established to provide Old Age Assistance and Old Age Survivors Insurance and in 1950, then President Truman, held the first of all National Conferences on Aging and the first federal social service programs were funded for the

The social security act was created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt so that he could put in place provisions in order to help the elderly. The social security act a document that helps impoverished citizens, such as the elderly and physically impaired receive benefits after retirement. Citizens’ in America during the great depression where expected to work weather elderly or physically disabled. These citizens weren’t afforded the financial stability to retire so work was a necessity to acquire money. “Prior to social security, the elderly routinely faced the prospect of poverty upon retirement” (U.S SSA). This effect of the great depression led to a lot death and homes turning into singled parent homes with no income. “The widespread

It’s a matter of either losing all that you have worked for and live in poverty when retired or allowing your hard earned dollars to grow and have a secure comfortable retirement. I believe that Social Security is a doomed Government Program and that Privatization of Social Security would allow for a more secure retirement plan for all Americans. Social Security was first created to help aging Americans in their senior years so they would not end up in poverty. Social Security was signed in as law on August 14, 1935 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and was fully operating by 1940. Originally a retirement program, but Social Security now includes survivor benefits, disability benefits and Medicare and all together is the largest

     Several federal agencies today support and administer the various Social Security programs. The programs associated with Social Security include Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI), Medicare, Unemployment Compensation, and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). For people who have worked for a living, OASDI and Medicare provide support during their older years and when they have stopped working. Unemployment Compensation provides temporary financial help during periods between jobs. SSI provides income to people who cannot work for various reasons. The OASDI

     Privatization is the most controversial argument in this sector of government. Many citizens believe that they should be allowed to make investments on their own rather than having the government perform this for them. These people believe that by doing so they have more control over their future and more autonomy from the government. Furthermore, they stress that privatization will increase competition, which is the basis of our free market capitalistic society. Many other communities in accord, feel that by investing privately what they are now paying in Social Security would raise economic growth and increase retirement incomes. For the past several decades, the average yield on private stock has excited inflation by seven percent compared to treasury bonds that only exceeds inflation by 2.3 percent. Alternatively, all plans to privatize social security come with an adverse effect. Most noticeably, is the tax increases which are necessary to make

By the mid 1960?s, Social Security had demonstrated success by achieving its primary goal of reducing the percentage of elderly living in poverty. New legislation that included Medicare and Medicaid added to the success of Social Security by increasing the tax base for Social Security and raising benefits by 7 percent, by allowing retirement recipients to work without losing benefits, and by amplifying the definition of disability. In 1969 benefits were raised by 15 percent. In 1972 they were raised by 20 percent. They were, also, indexed to increase at the rate of inflation.