Social Security: Programs and Policies of the New Deal

Social Security
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Social Security
Social security demonstrates the aspects of the programs and policies of the New Deal that aimed to bring prosperity and restore the dignity of Americans. President Roosevelt introduced the projects with the goal of getting the people out of the depression through addressing the economic and the unemployment crisis. The social security was supported by some Americans while others criticized the plan.
First, Social Security depicts that the New Deal was meant to help the aging and the unemployed Americans get a living. Roosevelt (1935), in his speech, said the Social Security was going to protect the citizens through old-age pensions, unemployment compensations, and ill health prevention. The Townsend plan introduced in 1933 by Francis E. Townsend led to the development of the Social Security Act. Townsend, an unemployed doctor, developed the document during the great depression when many Americans did not have jobs and was addressing the government. The purpose was to ensure retired Americans over 60 years would continue to get a monthly income to support themselves (Townsend, 1934).
The then Louisiana Governor, Huey Long supported the social security system by presenting the ‘share the wealth’ document in 1935. According to Long (1934), sharing wealth was the primary challenge in America causing some to lack while others had excess. Long recommends 30 dollars per month old-age pensions for those having properties whose value is less than 10,000 dollars and earn less than 1,000 dollars annually. His plan was different from that of Townsend, and he hoped that it would provide a chance to retire those over 60 in public service in cases of an unemployment crisis.
The editorial statement in the Los Angeles Times published in 1935 disagreed with the Townsend plan and Roosevelt’s perspective. The article states that the bill was meant to tackle the issue of caring for the infirm, the aged, and those that lost their jobs. However, the LA Times objected that the legislation was going to solve the problems satisfactorily. The LA times opposed the enormous quantities of information in the bill, arguing that it was all-containing, complicated and so involved that the public could not understand. The plan did not outline how the collected funds were going to be spent (LA Times, 1935).
Also, the anonymous woman in her letter to Roosevelt’s wife in 1937 did not agree with the Townsend and Roosevelt’s claims referring the plan as stealing (Anonymous, 1937). The author explains that she is a working woman and has struggled to save up for her retirement and hence the extra taxes is like stealing from her. The lady quotes President Roosevelt to emphasize her point that she does not support any of the policies in the social security. She had hoped that her savings would keep her safe in old-age, but she cannot rely on that anymore because of the additional taxes. The writer hates the New Deal that is shown by the conclusion that intelligent people would not trade freedom for security.
Additionally, social security demonstrates that the New Deal programs wanted to create jobs for the young individuals by convincing the old to...