The Social Security Act Of 1935

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.

Lastly, the Social Security Act was one of many reform efforts that sprung from the New Deal. This act was an attempt to provide general welfare for women and their children, those with disabilities such as blindness, older individuals, and public health, and helped financially support them while they were looking for work elsewhere. It was most common with elderly individuals, as they received what is known as “old-age pensions.” This was one of the few reforms that has stayed with us since the New Deal, and was economically successful in bringing America out of the Great

For many years the social security program has been operating successfully. In recent times however, it is becoming apparent to some that social security is in need of reform. Their argument is that with the amount of people getting older in the next couple of decades, there will not be enough money left in the social security reserves to pay for everyone who needs it. That is why the idea of separating social security up into private funds has been brought to the attention of the American citizens. This idea of reform has been around for quite a long time; however it has been pushed on by pro reform supporters more in recent times because they think it is necessary for the

President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the countries first Social Security program in 1935 as a part of his New Deal Program. The United States was in the midst of the Great Depression and due to the stock market crash of 1929 and bank failures, many American’s retirement savings accounts were destroyed. As a result, the poverty rates among the elderly in the country were exceeding fifty percent (Achenbaum). In creating the countries first Social Security program, President Roosevelt was the first president to advocate federal assistance for the elderly, disabled, widowed, fatherless children (later changed to included motherless children,) and unemployed (Kessler-Harris).

Our Social Security program mainly help out with older citizens and retirement but Social Security is more than just a retirement plan. The program helps families where a parent die and there is no type of income, a worker who has been disabled, and a dependent parent. If there were some type of circumstances in one home or life, they would be able to receive Social Security at any age. There is no doubt in my mind that we should save this program, no matter the cost, it helps out so many people in ways that we may not know of. Take some time and think about the world if this program had never been created and image how many people would be in poverty, unemployed, and old people who are not being able to pay for medicines or supply that they need. We should not change anything in the Social Security program until an crisis acquire, and when that day comes we will already know what to do to improve it by changing certain things in the

Debates over Social Security have been ongoing since its inception in 1935 until today. The trend seems to be toward an increasing percentage of the American public, across party and demographic lines, in favor of strengthening Social Security funding, and a willingness to pay more to preserve and even improve benefits. However, the trend towards privatization of Social Security is also on the rise. What is not clear is whether Americans favor privatization because of fears that the Social Security Trust Fund is living on borrowed time.

My first source is the annual report to Congress on Title XX of the Social Security Act. I found it in the government documents section of the library among other economic government sources. This source contains various details about the program form the 1980 fiscal year. The details of the program are quite extensive, but the true value of this source comes from the executive summary. In this summary there is a description of funding for social security over the past five years. The 1980 fiscal year was the first year in which funding dropped. Coincidentally 1980 is the same year that Ronald Reagan was elected President. This source is a clear example of his plan to cut spending in order to reduce spending. This source is one of the first

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

In this picture taken on Aug. 14, 1935 Franklin Roosevelt is signing the Social Security Act. He did this due to the fact that people were living longer and retiring earlier. This meant that the elderly had to live in poverty after working hard for their entire life.

Social Security Insurance coverage was very limited when the bill was passed. There were two debatable issues in the creation of the social security program that were assessed prior to actually providing beneficiaries with any compensation. One issue was the social security program financing, which involved the role of the reserve fund. The creation of the reserve was estimated to reach $47 billion dollars by the year 1980, but congressmen believed that the reserve was not workable because the idea of government bonds as a repository of genuine economic value was doubtful (DeWitt, 2010). The second issue was whether or not participation should be made voluntary for certain employers. This issue concentrated on those few establishments that had an existing pension plan. It was later decided by President Roosevelt and the Committee of Economic Security not to base the social security program off of an eligibility criteria, but instead they would use the large reserve fund that allows for long-term payroll tax rates to be kept lower

The Social Security Act was enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 to help seniors who were broke from the stock market crash in 1929. He wanted to build a safety net to ensure that every senior would stay above the poverty line and that there would be support for every worker’s family after his or her death. Today, Social Security does do that, but only barley, for many folks. (Epstein, 2006) Social Security was not the first retirement plan that was put into place in 1795 Thomas Paine introduce a pamphlet named Agrarian Justice where he suggested a system of inheritance taxes. His plan was for the tax of 10 percent on inherited property would be put into a special fund. It would be paid out as a one-time stipend to citizens just starting out at age 21, and as an annual benefit to everyone age 50 and older to protect against poverty in old age. Paine’s idea was never adopted even though inheritance taxes eventually were.

     There is much-heated debate on the issues of Social Security today. The Social Security system is the largest government program of income distribution in the United States. People are concerned that they won't see a dime of what they worked so hard to contribute into the Social Security system for so many years. Social Security provides benefits to about forty-three million Americans. Not only to retired workers, but also to their spouses and dependents of the workers who die prematurely. It also provides benefits to disabled workers and their dependents. Social Security appears to most people like a simple retirement saving’s account. After all, you generally

Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the original Social Security Act. It comprised of two services: a Social Security retirement benefit that applied only to workers, and a welfare program for the elderly called Old Age Assistance. Social

Since its creation in 1935 the Republican Party has been trying to change it. In 1935 the Republican party opposed its creation, in 1964 the Republican party tried to make it 'voluntary', and now there is a new debate on Social Security and 'privatizing' it or parts of it.

The Social Security System is in need of a new reform; our current system was not designed for the age stratification we have at this time. The U.S. Social Security Administration Office of Policy states, “The original Social Security Act, signed into law on August 14, 1935, grew out of the work of the Committee on Economic Security, a cabinet-level group appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt just one year earlier. The Act created several programs that, even today, form the basis for the government's role in providing income security, specifically, the old-age insurance, unemployment insurance, and Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) programs.” Social Security was modeled to aid the elderly citizens, however during the