Social Security Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Social Security - Research Paper Example Social security also provides income for those people who have become disabled and can no longer work and for those spouses and children whose wage earner has passed away. Thesis Statement Social Security is facing a long-term financial problem but it is not a crisis as some are trying to lead everyone to believe. Background Social Security as an Agency The United States was among those lagging behind major developed nations to set up a social security organization. In 1911, Wisconsin was the first state that approved the first state workers' reimbursement law to be held legitimate. It was the time when most Americans assumed the government should have no consideration to bother for the elderly, disabled, or disadvantaged. But such approaches altered during the critical period of Great Depression of the 1930's. Many Americans at this specific point of time sensed economic calamity or failure could outcome from happenings over which workers or government had no control. In 1935, Congr ess passed the Social Security Act. This law became the basis of the U.S. Social Security system. It provided cash benefits only to retired workers in commerce and industry. In 1939, Congress amended the act to benefit wives and dependent children of deceased workers. In 1950, the act commenced to cover numerous farm and domestic working classes, self-employed workers, technical and vocational workers, nonprofessional and many government and local bodies’ employees. Coverage became almost worldwide in 1956, when legal professionals and other professional workers of different fields came under the scheme. Congress further added disability insurance for the special employees to the system in 1956 and thus Medicare was set up in 1965. In the late 1970's, prices increased much faster than wages. This trend caused benefits to rise more rapidly than payroll tax revenues and resulted in a major drain on the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund. The law accelerated parts of a p reviously scheduled tax increase and expanded the categories of workers covered under Social Security. It required all federal employees hired after 1983 to join the system. The law also required the participation of about a million employees of nonprofit organizations. The legislation made up to 50 percent of the benefits of some higher-income retired people subject to federal income taxes and gave the resulting revenues to the Social Security trust funds. In addition, the law required a gradual rise in the normal retirement age. From the mid-1960 through the mid-1980, the tax-paying labor force was enlarged by the entry of the baby boom generation that is, the group of people born during a period of high birth rates from 1946 to 1964. Also, low birth rates in the 1920's and 1930's resulted in a relatively small population of retirees in the 1980's and 1990's. Because of these developments and because of the 1983 legislation and strong economic growth Social Security costs as a per centage of earnings subject to the FICA tax declined significantly from 1986 to 1989. This percentage began to rise again in the early 1990's. (Justice, 2005) George Bush Era and social Security George Bush has been working on a proposal to privatize the social