Why The United States Started Social Security

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]Franklin Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act on August [music] 14th, 1935 under enormous political pressure and in the middle of a catastrophe.

[00:00:08]Roughly half of American seniors lived in poverty. Roosevelt created the Committee on Economic Security in June 1934 and handed it a mandate to design a [music] national floor against destitution. Workers and employees each paid 1% of the first $3,000 in wages per year. Roosevelt was explicit about one design decision he cared about the most.

[00:00:30]He deliberately framed Social Security as insurance rather than welfare because insurance was something Americans trusted and paid into willingly. He understood what he was building. That framing would protect the program [music] from political attack for 90 years and it would also make the program nearly impossible to structurally reform.