1. The New Deal: Social Security
When Franklin Delano Roosevelt established new relief programs through the New Deal,
America gradually but very slowly made its way through the escape of the Great Depression.
Relief programs offered another option for Americans. Many of these new options and programs
still exist today. The most beneficial programs were the ones that offered money to elderly
citizens and civilians. Social Security most likely was one relief program that led more American
citizens to wealth rather than poverty.
Social security required a small payment to the government before the age of sixty two in
the 1930s. When sixty-two-year-olds became eligible to receive their reimbursement they could
gather a significant amount of money of the years that followed. The only group this program
was unfair to was the elderly citizens that were expecting social security reimbursements but
passed away in death shortly before they met the required the age. This extra bonus for older
Americans provided them with enough money for their own expenses and for contributions
towards all of their other payments.
Nowadays the government does not participate as actively in social security as they did in
the 1930s. If programs like social security and CCC worked well in the 1930s (when this country
was escaping a depression not a modern day recession) they should be considered a benefit for
today’s American economy as well. This country should learn from the history it created so long
ago to provide method for the future of this country. While there are complex factors that
contribute today’s views on social security, it was and is one of the best options for the pitiful
economic situations that America faces today.