can you give me a good resource on life "before Social Security"

[w8liftinglady]

I am doing some research and welcome any good sites

[Lochloosa]

1. Try a bar.

:evilgrin:

[Cassandra]

2. Don't know where I saw this but...

I read that if you didn't have income, you'd have to work until you dropped dead. An 80 year old put to work digging ditches and dropping dead in a ditch.
Otto Bettmann's book, "The Good Old Days, They Were Terrible!", is useful, although not specifically about Social Security.

[Lars39]

3. Not a resource, but an anecdote...

I've got a letter the government sent to my grandfather. Seems his income didn't even come up to the level that they were basing things on. The letter states that they were going to list his income as higher so they could get him in the system. If they hadn't gotten SS they would have starved as they aged.

[FreakinDJ]

4. here

and to think the RATpubliCONs at the time fought like Hell to keep these photographs from being published

[Zoeisright]

10. [phone]

Perfect.

And try this:

Between 1959 and 1974, the elderly poverty rate fell from 35 percent to 15 percent. This was largely attributable to a set of increases in Social Security benefits. The elderly poverty rate has continued to decline in subsequent decades, reaching 9.4 percent in 2006. Social Security and Supplemental Security Income benefits continue to play a key role in reducing elderly poverty, especially among women and people of color. If Social Security benefits did not exist, an estimated 44 percent of the elderly would be poor today, assuming no changes in behavior.

Sorry about the picture of the asshole chimp and the Joker. It's still a good source.

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/07/elderly_poverty.html

[FreakinDJ]

15. Ya - if you like Recessions - Thank a RATpubliCON

Great Depressions
RATpubliCONs - 2
Democrats - 0

I guess they are winning in that category

[Juche]

5. I think it was the elderly mostly lived with their kids

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4567019

However, you have to factor in issues like labor productivity. W/o SS fewer elderly would retire and more young people (aka their kids) would have to leave the workforce to take care of them.

I really have no idea what effect SS has had on labor productivity (by creating new entry level jobs due to retirement at 65 and letting the kids of the elderly work rather than take care of their destitute parents). But that should be factored into a discussion of SS.

[rfranklin]

7. Most people died before they could collect SS...

Life expectancy was about 59 years in 1930.

[Juche]

9. Life expectancy and life span are different

After you subtract infant and child mortality, lifespan was probably closer to 75 (as a guess).

So people would still live long enough to collect SS.

[Lars39]

6. Poor Farms might be what you're looking for:

http://www.google.com/search?q=poor+farms&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

The old dears lived in mortal fear of them. :(

[OHdem10]

8. The main reason for passing SS :: At that time the majority of

Ederly were dirt poor and had no means of caring for themselves. The Middle Class was just being born.

[Zoeisright]

11. Here:

SOCIAL SECURITY REDUCES PROPORTION OF ELDERLY WHO ARE
POOR FROM NEARLY ONE IN TWO TO LESS THAN ONE IN EIGHT

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=1863

Welfare Spending and Mortality Rates for the Elderly Before Social Security

http://www.nber.org/papers/w14970

Just Google 'Seniors before Social Security'.

[w8liftinglady]

13. thanks...

[laughingliberal]

12. Here's one:

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=1863

Looking for a source for the fact that starvation was the #1 cause of death in the elderly before SS.

[w8liftinglady]

14. thanks,all my next ltte will highlight the state of the elderly and disabled

prior to social security and medicare-since the right seems to have a hard-on for taking these away.Any other resources would be appreciated