The Social Security Act (Click for more information)
In 1934, to analyze economic security, President Franklin D. Roosevelt formed the Committee on Economic Security. It consisted of experts from various agencies, who later completed a report. The Economic Security Bill, later referred to as the Social Security Act, was presented to Congress in 1935, and was passed in the House and Senate. When signing the bill in 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt stated, “We can never insure 100 percent of the population against 100 percent of the hazards and vicissitudes of life, but we have tried to frame a law which will give some measure of protection to the average citizen and to his family against the loss of a job and against poverty-stricken old age.” We now think of this system as Social Security.
"Once old age was safe because there was always something useful which men and women, no matter how old, could do to earn an honorable maintenance. That time is gone; and some new kind of organized old-age insurance has to be provided"
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt