The Battle Over Social Security

6 Pages 1582 Words

The Battle Over Social Security:
Market Fundamentalism vs. American Values



In today’s divisive political climate, a bedrock American institution has come under attack. Social Security is a government program intended to protect our elderly and retired persons from poverty. This program was part of a larger program called the New Deal. The New Deal was the U.S. Government’s plan to end the Great Depression and ensure that we were embattled for any future economic disasters. In October of 1929, the New York Stock Exchange took a significant nose-dive. By 1932, stocks were worth 20% of their 1929 value. Manufacturing in this country was producing about half of its 1929 output. The unemployment rate rose to 30%. Things were looking terrible. President Herbert Hoover’s naïve response was to advocate volunteering. He felt that those who had plenty would be enthusiastically willing to lend a hand to their fellow countrymen who were struggling due to this economic catastrophe. Naturally, the American people had to elect a Democrat to replace Hoover.

Many radical elements of our society were advocating, at the time of the Great Depression, for increased welfare programs. The man the people elected in 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, had some pragmatic ideas of his own. FDR created a commission at the cabinet-level which sought to study and explore the economic situation with the means to create a social insurance program for Americans. With the findings of this commission, Roosevelt delivered the Social Security Act to congress in 1935. His plan for the poverty stricken was a system in which contributions in the form of taxes were to be taken from a worker’s pay, set aside and invested in United States Treasury Bonds, the safest investment imaginable. After a mildly bumpy start, Social Security began to roll and was a success.

“In our efforts to provide security for all of the American people, let us not allow ourselve...