The Social Security Act is the one of many New Deal programs that I chose to do my essay on. It is a federal safety net for elderly, unemployed and disadvantaged Americans. The original Social Security Act was to give financial benefits to retired people over the age of sixty five based on their lifetime payroll tax contributions. Economic security has been a huge issue in an unstable, unequal world with an aging population. During the Industrial Revolution and Americas urbanization lead to extended family disappearing and a longer life expectancy.
Do to extended family leaving this led to the older people in the family who were unable to work anymore not being financially stable. The industrial revolution made people to move to cities for jobs that were constantly threatening layoffs this left many people financially unstable. A three-person board was put into place in order to put forth the program for people who were requesting financial help. Not everyone was able to participate people that were self-informed, field hands and domestic workers. In order to put in an application people would go down to their local post office and put one in they would get a card with nine numbers stating who they were. After only eight days of the program being available there were over one million workers with one. Four months later over twenty-six million people had one and these cards are even still used today to keep track of workers earnings and benefits.
By nineteen fifty the act was stretched to be able to give Social Security to farm workers and people that worked from home. The plan was working for a very long time until around nineteen seventy-seven when they changed some of the qualifications for Social Security. They did this because it was costing the government too much money to have to keep track of all this and pay people that really were financially stable. The Social Security act remains after eighty dour years of being an act as one of the most successful programs in the U.S. In America today with forty-three million people living in poverty and fourteen million people living on disability the Social Security act is saving a lot of lives. I would also have to say this is benefiting my community a lot specifically because most of my community is made up of older retired couples. It also helps the people that live in unhealthy conditions all over Omaha and the country. Not only did this act help people during the Depression I feel like it is helping us stay out of another depression. We should be thanking President Roosevelt for thinking of the future generations that will be able to continue to live their life without having to depend upon family members to help support them. Not only did he come up with this act he came up with plenty of others to help bring our country out of an economic depression.
