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Why Social Security?

An historian explores the origins of the vital old-age program, which was just one possible avenue for an American pension system

By Clayton Trutor

For much of the last half century, the debate over pensions for aging Americans has centered on the question of Social Security's future. Some fight to keep Social Security as it is, defending the New Deal program's now nearly 90-year record of providing pensions for older Americans. Others seek to reform Social Security in the name of creating a more financially viable system. Some wish to dissolve it altogether.

President Roosevelt signing paper surrounded by several people. Next Avenue, social security
President Roosevelt signs Social Security Act, August 1935

Historian James Chappel has found that the seemingly never-ending loop of policy debates on Social Security were preceded by decades of vibrant public discourse on what a national pension system should look like in the United States.

In "Golden Years: How Americans Invented and Reinvented Old Age," Chappel interrogates both the world that Social Security hath wrought and the history of the competing visions for how such a national system ought to work.

"The Townsend movement, which is largely forgotten, was one of the biggest social movements of the 20th century."

"There was a big group of activists and policy makers across the 20th century that thought we should use old-age policy as an opportunity to address some of the imbalances and injustices of the labor market," Chappel said.

A Doctor Builds a Movement

One such vision was popularized by Dr. Francis Townsend, a physician from California who advocated a $200 monthly pension for Americans over 60 during the height of the Great Depression. At the time of Townsend's proposal in 1933, the $200 monthly payments would now be worth nearly $4,900 per month when accounting for inflation.

Recipients, which would exclude "habitual criminals," would be required to spend the money quickly, helping to revive the era's flagging economy. This simultaneous old-age pension and economic stimulus plan won millions of adherents and forced the hand of cautious members of Congress to enact an entitlement program aimed at older Americans.

"The Townsend movement, which is largely forgotten, was one of the biggest social movements of the 20th century," Chappel said. "Townsend envisioned older Americans as an engine for the economy."

An Old Idea in New Clothing

In certain respects, the Townsend Movement resembles the current Universal Basic Income (UBI) movement, popularized in large part by Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang during the 2020 primaries. Mirroring the Townsend movement, UBI is a proposed entitlement program that aims simultaneously to alleviate one of its era's primary economic challenges — the displacement of workers through automation.

"The Townsend plan would have provided something like a very high universal basic income for all Americans over 60. The UBI movement today does something very similar. I do see a parallel in the way they ask Americans to do something that Americans have been reluctant to ask," Chappel said, namely that social programs explicitly redistribute wealth.

Another vision for old age pensions was popularized in the very late 19th and early 20th century by a formerly enslaved woman named Callie House. She formed the Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty and Pension Association (Ex-Slave Pension Association), which advocated for compensation for former slaves in the form of cash payments or a homestead.

A Formerly Enslaved Woman's Idea

While the movement focused specifically on providing for the aging and formerly enslaved, Chappel argued persuasively that the program, which developed into a large, grassroots organization, offered an alternative vision for a system of pensions that compensated for unpaid labor, both that of women and formerly enslaved African Americans.

Headshot of a man. Next Avenue, social security
James Chappel  |  Credit: Courtesy of Basic Books

Neither Townsend nor House's vision won out. Instead, a solution in keeping with the economic imperatives of the broader labor market became the core of the country's pension system.

"They both lost out to Social Security," Chappel said. "One (Townsend) was too expensive and, in the other case, big, race-based reparations movements (such as the Ex-Slave Pension Association) have not fared well legislatively."

The Least We Can Do? Or the Most?

Social Security offered a very different vision of old age pensions. It recreated the existing labor market by providing payments based on an individual's own contribution and income level. Rather than targeting those in need, Social Security relies on a formula based on one's top 35 earning years to determine a monthly benefit.

"From the early 20th century to the 1970s, the argument was that 'Social Security is the least we can do.' For the last half of the book, since the 70s, it became 'Social Security' is the most we can do," Chappel said.

This turn against the idea that the state can play a larger role in ensuring that the basic needs of citizens came in the aftermath of the reformist zeal of the 1960s, an era when public policy makers made significant attempts to alleviate social ills through the creation of new government programs.

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A host of social initiatives aimed at improving the quality of life of older Americans came out of this moment, most significantly Medicare. While these social welfare programs aided older Americans in many respects, Chappel notes some of the shortcomings of these Great Society-era legislative efforts.

Blind Spots in the Great Society

"You have a lot of well-intentioned white experts who are overseeing a vast expansion of the American welfare state and so much of what we have is a result of their efforts," Chappel said.

"The American system of social policy works pretty well if you are healthy, but it becomes challenging if you need a home health aide or a nursing home."

He notes their clear blind spots on issues related to race and disability but at the same time admires their willingness to employ the state as an agent for social reform, a sensibility he sees as in short supply in contemporary public policy debates.

Chappel's book does not uncover some hidden past through archival research. This is a book built around little remembered public policy debates that have had a tremendous impact on the everyday lives of virtually every American.

"The expansion of the human life span is one of the most important changes of the past century," said Chappel, the Gilhuly Family Associate Professor of History at Duke University and a senior fellow at the Duke Aging Center. "People have been thinking about education policy forever because there have always been younger people but there haven't been that many older people."

Aging: A Field Ripe for Research

He regards the story of aging as one of the most underreported and insufficiently analyzed stories of the past century, particularly by his fellow historians.

Chappel grew up in Winter Haven, Florida, a community known for its "snowbirds," seasonal residents who migrated from the north during the winter months. "It was a part of my childhood, and it shaped my worldview, seeing a lot of older people and retirement communities," Chappel said.

Book cover of "Golden Years" Next Avenue, social security

When asked what he would have changed about the establishment of America's system of old-age pensions, Chappel said he wished that disability and long-term care had been included in social insurance back when the system was set up in the 1960s. "The American system of social policy works pretty well if you are healthy," Chappel said, "but it becomes challenging if you need a home health aide or a nursing home."

Instead, the country has relied on the labor of uncompensated family members, primarily women. Chappel concedes that such a program would have been expensive but it would have done a great deal for the well-being of American families.

Clayton Trutor holds a PhD in history from Boston College and teaches at Norwich University. He is freelance writer and the author of "Loserville: How Professional Sports Remade Atlanta — and How Atlanta Remade Professional Sports" and "Boston Ball: Rick Pitino, Jim Calhoun, Gary Williams and the Forgotten Cradle of Basketball Coaches." Read More
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