Social Security Dbq

In the year 1934 the American government would begin to answer it’s people’s call with President Roosevelt’s creation of the Committee on Economic Security (CES). Their task was to study economic insecurities within the United States and create a detailed legislative proposal as the basis for the Social Security Act. To accomplish this the CES completed a study that, according to the Social Security Administration themselves, was a milestone for the time: “Their full report was the first comprehensive attempt at this kind of analysis in many decades and it stood as a landmark study for many years“ (Social Security Administration, n.d., Header 16 Paragraph 1). With a recent diverse and detailed study to base their recommendations off of, the

McNeill, R. C. Hanes, & S. M. Hanes (Eds.), 2003, Header 10 Paragraph 1).

Though the act covered the above situations, it is not a static piece of legislation, just like the United States Constitution, it was meant to be changed and expanded. Though there was many additions and subtractions to the act, seven stand out from the rest. These additions or sub-programs of Social Security are (a) minimum wage set and child labor laws (1938), (b) allow other family members from deceased pension receivers to access the pension (1939), (d) Federal Disability Insurance (1956), (e) Medicaid (1965), (f) Food Stamp Program (1960s/1970s), and (g) Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, originally called Aid to Dependent Children (T. Riggs (Ed.), 2015, Paragraphs 6-8). These large programs changed the way Americans could receive financial help allowing them and their families to survive or protected them in some way, such is the case with the child labor laws and minimum wage. Together, all of Social Security’s acts and subprograms now provide help to 61.5 million people, equivalent to one in five people according to the National Academy of Social Insurance

As stated by the Social Security Administration (n.d.), although Germany had the first Social Security program (it had begun in the 19th century), It was America’s system who stood as the prime example of the system and its benefits. This success story is what led to its world-wide approval before being included into the Atlantic Charter and eventually one of the parts for the basis of the United Nations. Interestingly enough however, it was not President Roosevelt’s or Winston Churchill’s idea to put it into the Charter, instead it was suggested by John Winant who was serving as a U.S. ambassador in London after being chairman of the Social Security Board, though it was instantly accepted into the Charter by both Roosevelt and