News Brief

American Association for Social Security

Our population is growing older, and every decade sees more old people than before. The aged represent a steadily larger proportion of our population and more and more of us live on to old age. In less than a century the average span of life has been increased by fifty per cent-from thirty-nine years in 1840 to nearly sixty years at the present time. Whereas in 1870 there were only a little over one million persons sixty-five years of age and over, less than three in every hundred, there were close to seven million in the same age group in 1930-almost twice as many per hundred persons as sixty years ago. While the prospect of a longer expectancy of life should be welcome news to all of us, the sad part of this news lies in the fact that it has been paralleled with a number of developments which complicate and burden the period of old age.

It is the sad irony of our civilization that while the period of old age is being lenthened the years of remunerative employment are being steadily curtailed. Although more and more of us can anticipate living to a ripe old age, fewer and fewer of us can look forward to holding on to our jobs after we have reached 65 or 70 years. Aged workers are being eliminated from all the major industrial occupations.

The occupational census data for 1930 shows strikingly how few are the aged who derive their livelihood from industrial or mechanical pursuits.

ELDERLY WORKERS UNWANTED

It is now an established fact that modern American industry does not want men and women past middle age.

With curtailed operation and a limitless supply of all kinds of labor the chances for an aged person to find a job have almost completely vanished.

Professional and technical men are faced with the same difficulties. These groups too can no longer expect to support themselves by their own work for as long a period as their fathers and grandfathers did. As the number of professional people who depend for their living upon a salary from some corporation or firm is constantly mounting, the professional classes also are face to face with the terror of joblessness and poverty.

The movement for old age pensions, dating back over 25 years in the United States, has made considerable progress only during the last 10 years. Beginning with the pension system inaugurated in Montana, twenty-eight states-Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming-and the territories of Alaska and Hawaii-have now placed old age security laws on their statute books. Twelve of the above states and the territory of Hawaii enacted their laws since 1933.

PENSION EXPERIENCE

The present old age pension statutes have proved of inestimable benefit to tens of thousands, but they have not as yet fulfilled all the hopes of the proponents of this legislation. Most of the important states still limit the age to 70 years. While the average grants in most states cannot be criticized too harshly since they far exceed the allowances made under unemployment relief, they are of course not altogether adequate to meet the full needs of the aged. The citizenship requirement in all the laws, except in Delaware, works tremendous hardships upon those who, although residents of the United States for most of their lives, have for one reason or another not become formal citizens of the United States. Since this discrimination chiefly affects old women it frequently results in serious hardship, and unfortunately its removal is not yet in prospect.

But while the above restrictions can easily be remedied through amendments, there are a number of difficulties which are inherent in the very nature of these acts.

URGES INSURANCE

These difficulties can be overcome only through the inauguration of a system of compulsory contributory insurance similar to those now in operation in most countries abroad. Contributions should come from workers, employers, the various state governments, and the Federal Government. Preferably such a plan should be tied up with invalidity and health insurance. A system of compulsory contributory old age insurance either as a separate plan, or, preferably, in combination with a comprehensive system of social insurance offers the most adequate long-range program. The contributions necessary for an actuarially sound annuity plan can be determined with almost flawless accuracy.