Social Security, the most successful social program in American history, is 77 years old today. On this day in 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law. As he said at the time:
"The civilization of the past hundred years, with its startling industrial changes, has tended more and more to make life insecure. Young people have come to wonder what would be their lot when they came to old age. The man with a job has wondered how long the job would last.
"This law...represents a cornerstone in a structure which is being built but is by no means complete.... It is, in short, a law that will take care of human needs and at the same time provide for the United States an economic structure of vastly greater soundness....If the Senate and the House of Representatives in this long and arduous session had done nothing more than pass this Bill, the session would be regarded as historic for all time."
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