Senior Power

Abstract

The year 1935 marked a significant change for America's elderly. In that year, Congress passed the Social Security Act, which provided federally funded old‐age benefits to workers when they reached 65. Passed in a year of deep and persistent economic depression, the Social Security Act has continued to support and sustain millions of elderly people. But its historical meaning is even more profound; its passage signified that the United States had come of age as an industrial society. The welfare of its older citizens was no longer left to individual citizens, but was recognized as a social responsibility. From the thirties through the seventies, that principle has been generally accepted and encouraged.