Social Security Policy Analysis

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Social Security History of the Program On August 14, 1935, then President Roosevelt signed the social Security Act into law. The pathway to get to this stage was difficult and somewhat combative. In order for one to have the full picture of what influenced the passage of the act, we need an understanding of the historical factors in play during this period. Houser, Rosacker (2014) indicated that the country was experiencing that was described as The Great Depression, she provided statistics indicating that during this period of over 50% of those in the 65 age group were living in destitute and unemployed with the no likelihood of an immediate improvement in their conditions. President, Roosevelt came into office on a platform touting the concept,…show more content…
They explained the amount paid used a calculation that had based on “cumulative wages.” This formula changed in 1939 when the Act was amendment and the wages gained based its calculation on “average wages.” The authors lauded that they see as one of the most fundamental change to the original Act, and that was the institution of paid benefits to dependents and survivors. There were many progression of changes made to the original act, Martin, Weaver (2005) described these changes has, a period of expansion during the first four decades and this followed a period that had major concerns about the fiscal feasibility of the program. They added the fact that in its early inception the Act covered only those retired workers, in the commerce and industry, in his latest form family members, divorced spouses are entitled to benefits, and now 95% of the workforce is legible for…show more content…
(2012), analyzed the current program and discussed the impending fiscal crisis, which many are predicting the Social Security program will face in the years ahead. They are of the opinion that the outlook is not all gloomy. They argued that based on the age-dependency ratio, the program has gone through the worst of the demographic shifts. They reported that during the years 1960, each 100 working age people were supporting 90 Social Security dependents. By the year 2030 that same 100 people will be supporting only 79 dependents. The authors are of the opinion that the money spent on public education during the baby boomers earlier years, was greater than that is required to provide support for that group during retirement and old

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