HDFS339 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Great Depression, Free Migration
30 Jan 2019
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Document Summary
Largely an outgrowth of modern industrial society. Came with development of machinery and such. Come of age in the mid 20th c. 1900 68% of males age 65 were in labor. Retirement used to not exist, everyone else had to work. Not viable for self employed in a producing society. Retirement requires an industrial base that is strong enough to yield consistent surpluses and availability of pension and social support systems. In any society, there needs to be a big enough industrial base with consistency. 1935 social security act paved way for retirement to develop. Passed in response to large (and growing) numbers of older adults who were unemployed. Wop_ for italians, but meant without papers (small wages. 1940, 60% of the elderly were living below the poverty level. Tax-supported residential institutions to which people were required to go if they could not support themselves.
