The Social Security Act of 1935
The Social Security Act of 1935 was enacted by Congress and signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt. The Act established a system of benefits for victims of industrial mishaps, the disabled, the elderly, the unemployed, and relief for dependent parents and children (Cohen, 1983).
Reasons For The Act Creation
Prior to the Great Depression, support for the elderly and needy persons was a matter of the family, state, or local community rather than a federal issue. However, during the Great Depression, widespread suffering was caused by significant unemployment rates (Cassella, nd). Subsequently, numerous proposals were sent to the government to provide a national elderly insurance system. In response, President Roosevelt conveyed a message to Congress inquiring about social security enactments; later, in August 1935, the President authorized the Social Security Act by signing it into law.
People The Act Serves
Initially, the Social Security Act was created to serve the elderly after retirement from jobs in either commerce or industry. Later, in 1940, the benefits were expanded to cover survivor benefits and dependents of retired workers. Furthermore, in 1950, the system was expanded again to cover unemployment insurance. This is in addition to providing benefits to the blind, the physically challenged, children, giving family health programs, and providing vocational training programs (Cassella, nd).
Relevance of the policy
In my opinion, the Social Security Act is still relevant today because from 2007 to 2009, America experienced another economic turndown with an unemployment rate of 25% nationwide. The availability of the policy played a huge role in providing relief and reducing the severity of the economic turndown. Additionally, as of today, an estimated 46 million older adults live in America. This number is expected to double by 2050; since most older adults cannot work, the policy is essential (Ortman et al., 2014). Furthermore, during the past two years, the world has faced a global pandemic that has left millions of people unemployed (Couch et al., 2020). However, with the Social Security Act, those who lost their jobs were provided relief. Any changes that can be made to the Act would be to raise the usual retirement age to be able to accommodate the growing number of older adults.
References
Cassella, K. (nd). Social welfare and policy (2nd ed., p. 12). Ohio: EASTERN GATEWAY COMMUNITY COLLEGE.
Cohen, W. J. (1983). The development of the Social Security Act of 1935: Reflections some fifty years later. Minn. L. Rev, 68, 379.
Couch, K. A., Fairlie, R. W., & Xu, H. (2020). The impacts of COVID-19 on minority unemployment: First evidence from April 2020 CPS microdata. Available at SSRN 3604814.
Ortman, J. M., Velkoff, V. A., & Hogan, H. (2014). An aging nation: the older population in the United States.
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Question 
Answering the following questions:
1)What is the Social Security Act of 1935?
2)Why was it created?
3)Who does it serve?
Is this policy still relevant to citizens today, and are there any changes you would make?
The Social Security Act of 1935
Note: Please read chapter two of the attached textbook and cite other sources. Thank you.
Assignment Guidelines: Please complete in APA format that includes a title page, a reference page if external sources are used, in-text citations, quotation marks around direct quotes from external sources while acknowledging the author of the quote/statement, written in 12 pt font double-spaced. Thank you