Once the Great Depression hit there was widespread panic and unemployment numbers skyrocketed. Not only were the elderly and disabled looking for someone to help, so were millions of other Americans. The idea of social insurance as conceived by President Franklin Roosevelt would have to wait until Roosevelt was president and then a few years after that. If it wasn’t for the failed measures taken after the Great Depression to provide relief to Americans, we may have never had Social Security. Below is a look from Social Security about the responses and efforts for relief prior to Roosevelt and Social Security.
The Establishment Response
If America was to avoid the siren songs of the “radical calls to action,” responsible political leaders would need to offer some persuasive alternatives. As the Depression grew, three general approaches emerged: do nothing; rely on voluntary charity; and expand welfare benefits for those hardest hit by the Depression.
The Do Nothing Response
It seemed to many politicians and leading public figures that the Depression was just another dip in the economic cycle and that it would right itself soon enough. These voices counseled a restrained response, or no response at all. In the early aftermath of the stock market crash such views were especially common. This view that nothing very much was wrong and nothing very much needed to be done, began to fade quickly as the Depression deepened. Even so, it held considerable sway in the early years after The Crash.
President Hoover’s “Volunteerism”
President Herbert Hoover had a distinguished career before becoming president. He made a name for himself in international relief efforts before and after World War I. He helped feed millions of starving people, through the efforts of voluntary partnerships of government, business and private giving. He knew this kind of “volunteerism” worked, on a massive scale, and he saw no reason why it should not work to solve the problems of the Depression. So although he engaged in some limited federal relief efforts, his main response to the Depression was to advocate voluntary efforts, which never materialized. The main problem with this strategy was that America was able to help rebuild Europe in the aftermath of World War I because America’s economy was basically sound. In the Depression the total wealth of the nation was cut in half during the first three years after The Crash. This made voluntary charity a difficult ideal to achieve.
Expand Welfare
Even before the Depression hit, the States had been forced to deal with the problems of economic security in a wage-based, industrial economy. Workers Compensation programs were established at the state level before Social Security, and there were state welfare programs for the elderly in place before Social Security. Prior to Social Security, the main strategy for providing economic security to the elderly, in the face of the demographic changes discussed above, was to provide various forms of old-age “pensions.” These were welfare programs, eligibility for which was based on proof of financial need. By 1934, most states had such “pension” plans. Even at the state level, however, these plans were inadequate. Some had restrictive eligibility criteria which resulted in many of the elderly being unable to qualify. The most generous plan paid a maximum of $1 per day. In the Congress, the consensus of conventional wisdom was for more old-age assistance like that available in the states.
