Social Security Policy Essay

“The America Dream” has a different meaning for everyone, depending on who is asked. However, every individual yearns for economic stability and self-sufficiency, especially in their golden years. As a democratic society built on a traditional value system, elderly, retired, or co-dependent individuals are now to be economically protected by the government, however, this was not always the case. In 1934 the United States government, heavily influenced by the impacts of the Second Industrial Revolution, World War I, and the Great Depression, founded the Social Security Administration with the intent of making social insurance feasible for all needy Americans (Social Security Administration, n.d.). President Roosevelt is credited with the implementation of this policy and was the first major leader to recognize a need for economic support for the elderly (Social Security Administration, n.d.). During this era, poverty and economic instability among the elderly and certain vulnerable groups were for the first time a major concern for American society. World War I left many women and children without breadwinners and

Amid the Great Depression, two influential movements called for the formation of the Social Security Act of 1935: the Townsend Movement and the Share Our Wealth Program. Both called upon the federal government to supply every American citizen with a minimum monthly payment to support the cost of necessities, though the Share Our Wealth program was more radical in it called upon confiscating wealth from the upper class and redistributing it among the poor (Social Security History, 2023). Although Social Security is an active program today, its level of effectiveness remains controversial and calls for similar political and economic agendas, such as the “Tax the Rich”