After Fifteen Years: A Report on Old-Age and Survivors Insurance

The 15 years since the old-age and survivors insurance system began operations have demonstrated that social insurance can be successfully applied to meet American needs for protection against the economic risks of death and old-age retirement in modern life. Belief by Congress in the soundness of social insurance was strikingly reaffirmed in the enactment, by nearly unanimous vote, of the 1950 amendments to the Social Security Act. Mainly as a result of these amendments, old-age and survivors insurance is now more nearly equipped to do the job it was meant to do, and is, in fact, beginning to do on a larger scale. At the end of 15 years of operations, old-age and survivors insurance has emerged as an important institution in American life.