In a fit of aggressive reforms against the ineffectiveness that characterized the Hoover administration in combating the economic downturns of the Great Depression, the new president, Franklin Roosevelt, developed and enacted a set of laws and policies collectively referred to as the New Deal. One of the principal components of the New Deal is the Social Security Act (SSA). While the SSA was created fundamentally to provide a benefits system for the elderly and retired, it has provided welfare support for the jobless, disabled survivors, and other vulnerable groups in society. The impacts of the social welfare reforms have been significant as they have dramatically improved the lives of the elderly.
In order to comprehensively account for all the individuals crucial to the development of the Social Security Act, it is necessary to delve into the historical setting that contextualized the early developments of social welfare. True to the adage of adversity fuelling innovation and progress, the events of the great depression can be directly attributed to the initialization and development of social security welfare. Political and patriotic incentives existed for political elites running for office to develop and articulate solutions to the economic travesty that followed the great depression.
The U.S. had little experience with social security programs before 1930, and there were only poorly financed, state-managed security programs for the aged (McJimsey, 2000). This is despite the country having experienced two economic depressions in the 1840s and 1890s before the Great Depression. However, as of the 1890s, it had already dawned on the working population that the occurrence of unemployment was a possibility. Inspired by the dismal situation of the unemployed masses, John Coxey led a march to Washington to protest the rampant unemployment in 1894 (DeFillipo, 2018). In the 1928 depression, it became starkly clear that there was widespread poverty among the elderly since they had no source of income for self-sustenance (SSA, 2019)
Other important individuals and political figures started to rise in defense of policies that aimed at the redistribution of income and the development of some form of social security. Influential in his time, Huey Long, while governor of Louisiana, coined the phrase ‘every man a king’ in reference to his propositions that the government should confiscate and redistribute the wealth of the rich (Brinkley, 1981). This, he believed, would ensure that people were sufficiently provided for to enable them to get the basic necessities of life, regardless of their economic positions.
The most notable among the key figures who fostered the foundational thinking that would be critical in influencing the development of the Social Security Act is Dr. Francis Townsend. Finding himself unemployed and without savings, Dr. Townsend devised what came to be known as the Townsend plan, wherein he proposed under a list of criteria that the government provide the elderly with a $ 200-a-month pension. His proposition included that the government source such income from 2% of the income it obtained from sales tax. As did the populist movement Every Man a King, the Townsend plan gathered momentum, and over seven thousand local Townsend clubs formed with over 2 million members.
Roosevelt saw the value in the Townsend idea, noting how helpful it would be in providing for those who were no longer able to work. Other influential figures were Clarence Dill and Bill Connery, who together sponsored the Dill-Connery bill, which pushed for federal funding to back state pension programs for social welfare. In 1934, Roosevelt went on to formulate a Committee on Economic Security to help develop a pension program for the elderly. The committee was chaired by Labor Secretary Frances Perkins and included five other members who studied economic insecurity and formulated recommendations for legislative action in parliament.
From this historical background, it is clear that everyone who was instrumental in the development of the Social Security program was ambitious and very self-driven. Diligence is listed as one of the seven virtues contrasted with the seven deadly sins in the Christian tradition. From mobilizing the public to organizing committees that painstakingly conduct critical research needed to formally prepare grounds for legislative action, for which the Social Security Act was made to work, requires unwavering grit and determination. Their efforts showed that all the involved parties, even unwittingly, espoused the virtues of Christian ethics, which evidently proved to be helpful in the end.
Secondly, it is highlighted in all the cases that the primary driving force of most of the partakers in the formulation of social security welfare was the plight of the common folk. The Christian principle of compassion is heavily shown in this. Furthermore, the ideal of justice governing the individuals who took the initiative to influence actions that later were formalized into the Social Security Act is explicated as having been impactful in helping advance the efforts of the Social Security Act. While it was infeasible to enforce such stipulations as were proposed in movements such as Coxley’s, it is clear that his intentions were in the best place to facilitate economic equality and welfare for the vulnerable and unemployed in society.
Like most systems developed under democratic governance, the foundational idea of continuous refinement holds. As such, it is important that the social welfare systems continue to be reformed to reflect the ideals of social and economic conditions of the day. One of the reasons to reform welfare systems is due to the losses that are attributable to the structural flaws that cause issues that could be accounted for as mismanagement. An example would be the losses experienced by a welfare system such as the Earned Income Tax Credit for low-earning taxpayers. Simplification of their filing system would help curb the 21 percent of its payments made in error.
There has been resistance and pushback against some of the aspects and rationale behind the social security welfare. One of the principal criticisms has been around the high cost of the Social Security welfare program. The program is funded by a dedicated payroll tax: 6.2 percent of the gross income for employees and 12.4 percent for the self-employed. The main argument stems from the idea that unemployment welfare benefits, encapsulated in the Social Security program, remove the incentive for the unemployed to look for work. Additionally, it is argued that economic growth is slowed whenever people know that they are going to receive benefits. This is because the need to save is eliminated, which then slows down investments. However, when all is said and done, the benefits that have been accrued from the welfare system far outweigh the losses.
References
McJimsey, G.T. (2000). The presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
SSA.Gov. (2019). Social Security. Social Security History. https://www.ssa.gov/history/briefhistory3.html
DeFilippo, J. (2018, October 17). Coxey, Jacob S. Social Welfare History Project. https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/people/coxey-jacob-s/
Brinkley, A. (1981). Huey Long, the Share Our Wealth Movement, and the Limits of Depression Dissidence. Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association, 22(2), 117–134. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4232073