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Franklin Roosevelt envisioned social security to be the cornerstone 'for the kind of protection America wants' from the financial troubles people faced due to old age and family tragedies. By fulfilling its initial promise, social security has evolved into the nation's largest, costliest, and most successful domestic institution. But the optimistic assumptions that inspired its incremental expansion have dissipated in the face of demographic, political, economic, and cultural shifts in American society. Social Security: Visions and Revisions encourages lawmakers, academic experts, and general readers alike to think more broadly and boldly about social security and its relation to public assistance and other income-maintenance and health-care programs. Pulling together information and insights previously scattered and fragmentary, this 1986 book draws lessons from the past that free us of outdated assumptions and unexamined shibboleths. The re-vision of social security that Achenbaum advocates should become the basis of all discussions of government's responsibility to promote 'the general welfare' in our ageing society.
Sommario
Foreword; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Part I. Social Security Comes of Age: 1. Social security: the early years; 2. Social security matures, 1940-72; 3. The mid-life crisis of American social security; 4. Social security gets a new lease on life; Part II. Current Social Security Issues in Historical perspective: 5. Retirement under social security; 6. Social security and the modern American woman; 7. Universal coverage: an either/or proposition?; 8. Federal health care programs and social security; 9. A vision renewed: individual needs and mutual responsibility; Notes; Index.
Info autore
W. Andrew (Andy) Achenbaum, Ph.D., is a semi-retired professor of history in the Houston, Texas Medical Center's Consortium on Aging. He is married to Barbara Lewis and is the proud father of two daughters and two grandchildren.Achenbaum earned his B.A. in American Studies at Amherst College, an M.A. at the University of Pennsylvania, and his Ph.D. in history at the University of Michigan. After learning more about the art of teaching at Canisius College and revising the core curriculum at Carnegie Mellon University, Andy served as professor of history and deputy director of the Institute of Gerontology at the University of Michigan and then became the founding dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Houston.For half a century Achenbaum has been critically thinking, lecturing and writing about the meanings and experiences of old age in U.S. history. To interpret intriguing late-life continuities and to fight ageism, Andy has elaborated older Americans' roles in reconfiguring an aging nation's political economy, social and transgenerational policies, and (in)visibility in cultural affairs. Turning 75 in good health this year, he finds it a challenge to balance personal and professional opinions about fairy-tale wisdom and soulful aging in a deeply polarized country.Achenbaum has published six books, co-edited 12 others, and written more than 200 peer-reviewed articles. Routledge will publish his forthcoming book Safeguarding Social Security for Future Generations. A recipient of several awards for his work in gerontology, he chaired the National Council of Aging, and served on national, state, and local advisory boards. To learn more and contact Andy, visit www.FairyTaleWisdom.com
Riassunto
Social Security: Visions and Revisions, first published in 1986, encourages lawmakers, academic experts, and general readers alike to think more broadly and boldly about social security and its relation to public assistance and other income-maintenance and health-care programs.
