Before the 1930s, various issues that are now considered the jurisdiction of the federal government were addressed by the states. In a past post I discussed the incorporation of the Tennessee Valley Authority -- but in this post, I'm going to discuss the purpose and effect of the Social Security Act of 1935.
The Act was designed to lay out support for the elderly by means of insurance. It functioned a bit differently than the systems for a similar purpose that existed in Europe, for it took funding from taxes while the Europeans took directly from their Government funds -- a difference which may seem simple but which severely changes the connotation and the Constitutional implications of any use of funding.
The Act did not pass without opposition. For starters, there were those who called it socialism and an attempt to "Sovietize" the country. People believed there were flaws in the design; individuals like Republican candidate Alf Landon believed that if employers and workers were required to pay for part of the program with their tax dollars, they would simply pass on the extra cost to the consumer, hurting the common man. There were also charges that it would increase unemployment and bureaucratic attitudes.
In the end, the Act has come to be known as an essential element of the way that we help Americans in need, and not just the elderly; it included provisions for children, the blind, and the unemployed. And despite the accusations, it never did succeed in Sovietizing the country in any meaningful way.
Note that, like the Tennessee Valley Authority, new methods of upper-level organization were required to make this new system work, resulting in the creation of the Social Security Board. This Board worked to register citizens for available benefits, send them their payments, and administer any contributions to their funding by the Federal Government.
The atmosphere that surrounded the passage of the Act is important to consider today; considering the positive impact that it was able to have, it's a historical lesson to which we can look to understand how something's intuitive predicted effects might differ from its actual impact.
Sources:
https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=68
http://classroom.synonym.com/opposition-social-security-1930s-23530.html
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