Social Security Act of 1935

Social Security Act of 1935

Social Security Act of 1935 established old age insurance for much of the over 60 population. Half of the funds are provided by a payroll tax on workers and half is paid by employers. The act also provided federal unemployment insurance, welfare aid to low-income mothers (later amended to families), funding for individual state assistance to elderly individuals, and various other social insurance provisions.

Cry Wolf Quotes

This is the largest tax bill in history. And to call it ‘social security’ is a fraud on the workingman…. I am not exaggerating the folly of this legislation. The saving it forces on our workers is a cruel hoax.

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Alf Landon, the 1936 Republican nominee for president.

YOU’RE SENTENCED TO A WEEKLY PAY REDUCTION FOR ALL OF YOUR WORKING LIFE. YOU’LL HAVE TO SERVE THAT SENTENCE UNLESS YOU HELP REVERSE IT NOVEMBER 3.

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Two weeks before the election, workers in various Detroit plants found these placards at their workplaces. October, 1936.

The Senate Finance Committee stands between us and stands between businesses that are almost prostrate, stands between us and destruction, and we feel that we can come to you for support and for protection. You will have no taxes to pay anything with if you do not keep American industry alive, and we have a right to depend on you gentlemen to do it, no matter what propositions, impractical propositions, are brought up.

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Elon H. Hooker, president of the Manufacturing Chemists Association. Senate Finance Committee hearings.

There is no such thing, biologically, socially or economically, as absolute security; but the greatest security comes from within the individual rather than from without and the Thames unduly to ensure, will so weaken the individual and cannot adapt circumstances and environment to himself, or himself to his surroundings.

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John C. Parker, President of the Brooklyn Edison Company.