Introduction
Ladies and gentlemen I honor and great you full of pleasure to address you on what make me feel at home whatever the situation around the streets of our nation. I feel at home because the social security system of this nation has been my concern ever since I got to know its existence. When I was just asking myself on what to address to you today, my great obvious question was do all people who will be at these place today know of our social security system? I am very much aware that I will get several responses ranging from yes to unknown.
The root idea of the current social security system was all out the need to have in place a systematic methodology of taking care of the material concerns of the aged people. This came out of the charitable concern that is deep inside the hearts of the American people who always see far into the future. It is the concerns of American people who saw it detrimental to have people growing old and old each and every day without social support. Out of this charity feeling, in suppose the idea sprang as indubitable truth that will not be denied by anyone of wits. The founders must have thought that something that people will look forward to, something that they will lay their dependence on was so much of importance as it will allow them to cater for the disadvantages of old age. I must admit that old age is a blessing but it comes with disadvantages that the founders of the current social security system foreshadowed and decided to bring their heads together and have the problem fixed using this social insurance. Several people from other parts of the world have appreciated the idea saying that the idea was a unique state of mind of the American people. De Tocqueville mentioned this during one of his visits to America. He added that it is a routine characteristic of the people of America to be charitable and show concerned to their fellow disadvantaged citizens.
The widespread issue of the social security concern began shortly after the great depression that occurred in 1929. I say shortly to mean some couple of years. I can confirm that people of this country knew something about social insurance as some kind of workforce compensation. The American people though they had knowledge on social insurance, they knew little about poverty. It was after this depression that problems mistreated the American people. Since this period we experience a drop of everything, the economy, bank run and in less than a year, it was like terror in America. It was at 1935 that the voice of the American people was and the social security act was passed to bill.
Initially, the Act excluded the social security benefits from the minorities groups in America mostly the women. The employment definitions favored white men for the benefits of the unemployed insurance and old age pensions. However, the situation has been changing since 1930s and the social needs and concerns of the minorities and women had to be catered for as the gender roles and positions of the minorities kept on changing. In the recent years, the officials of the social security program have shown more concern on the needs of women than those of the minorities. Social security since then has been moving towards universal coverage of all people irrespective of color, race or social status. At around 1950s the holding debate about the program shifted from the identification of groups to be included into the benefits to the determination on how to provide adequate coverage. The condition by this time was more on achieving a balance between efforts to provide adequate protection and promotion of equality.
Let me brief you ladies and gentlemen on the benefits of the social security program. The largest constitution of the social security benefit is the retirement payment benefits. These benefits are in the form social insurance which I can make it clear today that it is biased towards the lower earning members of the American society. Many can argue that the program has been controversial in that it has been seeking for achieving social balance and yet it serves the community based on social differences. Yes it serves on social difference, but reasonably because the lower earners are the most vulnerable when it comes to social support. It is reasonable for our government to ensure that its people do not retire in relative poverty.
Ladies and Gentlemen the calculation of social security benefits are based on the average SECA (Self Employed Contribution Act) and the FICA (Federal Insurance Contributions Act) salaries for a period of 35 years and the age of the worker requirement. The calculation involves a lot of mathematics and statistical analysis and I will refer anyone who needs more information on how to calculate the monthly benefits to the USA Social Security website. Ladies and gentlemen as I can see time is against us I beg to terminate from there finally saying that this was a brilliant idea from the American people. God bless you all and God bless our nation. Thank you for your time.
Works cited
Mitchell, Daniel J. "Creating a Better Social Security System for America." Heritage Foundation Backgrounder 1109 (1997).
Caucutt, Elizabeth M., Thomas F. Cooley, and Nezih Guner. "The farm, the city, and the emergence of social security." Journal of Economic Growth 18.1 (2013): 1-32.
