Social security

For the United States' federal programme of the same name, see Social Security (United States).

Social security is term now generally applied to political programs which provide welfare payments for the benefit of special classes of the population considered to be deserving of special financial assistance.

In 1883, the German Government established a compulsory insurance system for all German employees. This system was designed to replace public relief with a program providing insurance for employee sicknesses, accidents and old age. In the following decades this system abandoned its actuarial basis and became more and more a system of benefits and pensions financed by taxes on wages. The system has been adopted step by step by almost all industrial nations. It was first enacted in the United States in 1935 as part of the New Deal of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Links

• Social security at Wikipedia
• Social Security by Thomas R. Saving at The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics (about Social Security (United States))