Latest / Living Loud and Proud: Disability Conversations / Amplifying Independence: Social Security Act

Transcript

Amplifying Independence: Social Security Act · Living Loud and Proud: Disability Conversations

0:00
Welcome to the Living Loud and Proud podcast,
0:03
brought to you by Disability Pride Pennsylvania.
0:08
If you need a link to the transcript for this
0:11
episode, please visit our accessible website
0:14
at www .disabilitypridepa .org slash podcast.
0:23
And now, here is your host. Hey folks, welcome
0:28
to Season 2, Episode 4 of the Living Loud and
0:32
Proud podcast. Today is the first episode in
0:36
our Amplifying Independence series, all about
0:39
the formation of social supports and laws that
0:41
help disabled individuals to live independently.
0:45
We're focusing specifically on the formation
0:48
of the Social Security Administration and how
0:50
policy has shaped the program over time. I'm
0:54
your host and producer, Phil Rosen, today, and
0:56
I'm joined once more by my co -producer, Ray
0:59
Decahorton. Ray, how's it going? All right. How's
1:02
everybody doing today? Oh, that's great. Awesome.
1:06
So, as always, if you're more interested in this
1:09
topic, please do some research on your own. There's
1:13
a lot to delve into here. We had to cut a bunch
1:16
of information for time. politics behind all
1:22
of the decisions that went into this are actually
1:24
really fascinating if you're interested in that.
1:30
We would love to continue this conversation online,
1:33
so please comment, share, and like this episode
1:35
if you enjoy our show. All right, let's get into
1:39
it. Okay, so where should you begin? Oh, you
1:47
know what? At the very beginning, the initial
1:51
original proposals for Social Security programs
1:54
nationwide. We're talking about what, the early
1:56
1900s, specifically when? So 1932 is the first
2:01
mention in any place in America of creating a
2:08
monthly stipend for the elderly. It was first
2:11
proposed by Dudley J. LeBlanc during his 1932
2:15
campaign for governor of Louisiana. He did lose
2:18
the election. But some other political operatives
2:24
within Louisiana, specifically Huey Long, whose
2:28
nickname was the Kingfish. Okay. They saw the
2:31
popularity of this and they decided, hey, why
2:35
don't we take this federal? Exactly. And Huey
2:42
Long is specifically notable because he adopted
2:46
the idea in his national platform attacking the
2:50
original New Deal from FDR for not being radical
2:55
enough. And this is important because he was
2:58
planning a primary bid for president against
3:02
FDR. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, for those who
3:06
don't know the initials. Yes, Franklin Delano
3:09
Roosevelt. And he was assassinated, though, the
3:16
year prior, 1935, by Carl Weiss at the Louisiana
3:20
State Capitol. So he was unfortunately not able
3:23
to run for president. That sucks. I mean, for
3:26
him, sure. Yeah. But Francis Townsend popularized.
3:34
this idea, LeBlanc's idea in 1933, more nationally.
3:38
And the influence of his Townsend Plan persisted
3:43
into the 1950s. So a lot of the discussion through
3:50
the Townsend Plan had to do with the early debates
3:53
centering how the measure would be funded, how
3:57
Social Security as a fund. would get the revenue
4:01
to be able to then disperse payments out to average
4:04
citizens. So some argued for individuals to pay
4:10
into the system over the course of their career.
4:12
Of course, critics to this, the obvious is, well,
4:17
but what about people who are already working?
4:21
They're not going to have enough time to accrue
4:23
anything of any real value here. Okay. So adequate
4:30
benefits down the line would not be a thing for
4:33
people who were currently working at the time.
4:39
And in 1934, there was a group of political sciences
4:47
at the University of Wisconsin -Madison that
4:50
developed the proposal for a federally funded
4:52
pension plan, similar to what Social Security
4:56
became. Okay. And these men were all generally
5:04
economic advisors in one capacity or another
5:08
for FDR. So like Edwin Witt, for instance, was
5:14
the executive director of the President's Committee
5:16
on Economic Security under FDR. He's often credited
5:20
as being the father of Social Security. He disputed
5:23
that himself, though. he actually thought that
5:26
it would be more appropriate to refer to a colleague
5:30
of his, Arthur J. Altmyer, who became the Assistant
5:33
Secretary of Labor under Francis Perkins during
5:36
FDR's term. Okay. And Wilbur Cohen as well worked
5:41
on this proposal with his two colleagues from
5:48
UW -Madison. Huh. All right. And, of course,
5:57
you know, as with anything, there's opposition,
5:59
right? I mean, political stuff, there's always
6:03
going to be some controversy. Right. But Social
6:10
Security was quite controversial because some
6:15
argued it would reduce the labor force. At the
6:20
time, remember, you know, this is the... early
6:24
1930s, right? What was happening in the 1930s?
6:30
Which thing in particular? I mean, not World
6:34
War I. Everything that was leading up to World
6:39
War II. The Depression. Right, the Great Depression.
6:43
What was a big hallmark of the Great Depression?
6:45
What was a big problem within the Great Depression?
6:47
Do you remember this, Ray? Well, no money, but
6:50
why was there no money? Because younger men were
6:54
unable to get into the workforce because older
6:57
men were having to stay longer to work. And there
7:02
were less jobs available due to automation and
7:05
the factory line. Along with some other economic
7:10
things that I'm not going to go into. There's
7:11
a lot more that went into the Great Depression
7:13
and how it all played out than what I just said.
7:16
That was a gross oversimplification. But the
7:20
more... older workers that were able to retire
7:23
and retire comfortably and safely, the better
7:27
the outlook was going to be for younger men to
7:30
be able to start accumulating wealth. Right.
7:33
And to get us out of depression. Right. So that's
7:38
what a lot of the supporters for the Social Security
7:41
plan argued. Another big set of arguments against
7:48
Social Security. And this just shows how this
7:54
country has been thought of or has thought of
7:57
capitalism versus socialism. It's always been
8:00
this kind of like existential threat for forever.
8:08
So Senator Thomas Gore, who is a Democrat from
8:12
Oklahoma, asked the Secretary of Labor, Francis
8:16
Perkins. who, by the way, was the very first
8:20
female to ever serve in the presidential cabinet.
8:23
Yep. Big deal there. But he asked her, isn't
8:27
this socialism? She responded with, well, not
8:32
really. I mean, he continued, though, down this
8:38
line of questioning. And he said, isn't this
8:42
a teeny weeny bit of socialism? Wow. Essentially
8:47
trying to get this weird association. You know,
8:52
it's like the ACA and Obamacare, right? Right.
8:55
Where, you know, people are fine with the ACA,
8:58
but they hate Obamacare. Well, it's because of
9:00
branding. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, another issue
9:09
with the original proposal of Social Security,
9:13
excuse me. Was that most women were excluded
9:17
from the benefits of unemployment insurance and
9:20
old age pensions. And a lot of blacks as well
9:23
in America were, especially in the South. But
9:28
everywhere it was an issue. So there were a lot
9:31
of really broad categories of workers that weren't
9:34
covered. Like I said, agricultural labor, domestic
9:38
service, you know, maids, servants, that kind
9:42
of stuff. Government employees. Most teachers
9:47
were excluded because, well, they're technically
9:50
government employees in a way. Right. A lot of
9:55
nurses. That probably weren't. Oh, right. Nurses.
10:00
Hospital employees. Librarians. Public workers
10:06
again. Social workers. Yeah. And people who did
10:11
not work full time. So intermittent workers.
10:15
You know, sharecroppers and the like would be
10:18
a pretty famous example of that. So basically,
10:21
everybody that really definitely would have needed
10:23
it, they did not want to be covering. Well, you
10:27
know, story of America, right? In a way. Oh,
10:32
I just said the quiet part out loud. I'm sorry.
10:35
But anyways, so yeah, it was mostly women and
10:38
minorities. The numbers really break down as
10:41
like 90 % of domestic labor in the year 1940
10:45
were women. Like those employees were women.
10:49
Two thirds of all employed black women were in
10:53
domestic service. So, you know, huge, huge number
10:58
of people just being completely cut out. And
11:03
these were the people. Who basically I mean,
11:07
we're talking about the 1940s. Yeah. I mean,
11:10
come on. I mean, never had before had there been
11:12
so many factory workers, you know, that were
11:15
women, you know, because all the men were off
11:17
to war, you know, and definitely all the minorities,
11:21
you know. Wow. OK, go on. Yeah. And I mean, this
11:25
is this is just like right around the time that
11:28
that America would be thinking about getting
11:30
into the war at the time, I believe. Pearl Harbor
11:32
was, what, like 1939, 1940? What was it, 41?
11:37
Or maybe 41. So, you know, we had ramped up the
11:43
factory anyways because we needed to be sending
11:46
things overseas to our allies. But we hadn't,
11:51
you know, necessarily been full -throatedly in
11:55
the war, so to speak. But anyways. Another thing
12:01
that's important number wise to think about is
12:03
nearly half the working population was excluded
12:06
from the original proposal. Right. So like I
12:10
was saying, nearly two thirds of all African
12:13
-Americans in the labor force and 70 to 80 percent
12:16
in some parts of the South. Not really surprising
12:20
given the history of our country. And, you know,
12:26
this was. Still before the civil rights movement
12:31
really took hold and got the wins that they really
12:36
needed to change this. And the NAACP actually
12:42
protested the Social Security Act when it was
12:46
proposed. And they described it as a sieve with
12:51
holes just big enough for the majority of Negroes
12:54
to fall through. That is a direct quote from
12:57
their arguments against it. And some of this
13:05
may be pointing to the fact that there were a
13:11
lot of Southern Democrats, the Dixiecrats, quote
13:15
unquote, that were in positions of power on the
13:18
Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and
13:21
Means Committee. At the time, and those were
13:25
like the two major committees debating the bill
13:28
before it went to a vote on the floor. This has
13:33
been disputed in the historical texts. But given
13:40
how the last half of the 20th century was with
13:44
regards to how politics worked, I'm willing to
13:48
gather that there. may have been more than a
13:52
few people that were not explicitly doing this
13:55
because of racism, but racism motivated at least
14:00
some of it. So I think there's probably a little
14:05
bit of column A, a little bit of column B here.
14:09
My personal opinion, Disability Pride does not
14:12
necessarily endorse my opinion. Just put that
14:15
out there. But that's where I'm coming from.
14:23
And Edwin Witt himself questioned whether the
14:26
Social Security Act of 1935 would even pass.
14:30
It was so controversial. Right. Part of it was
14:34
just simply due to the fact that it was super
14:37
similar to another piece of New Deal legislation,
14:41
which was the Railroad Retirement Act. And that
14:44
act got struck down by the Supreme Court. As
14:50
the name suggests, very similar to the initial
14:53
Social Security program that was proposed. Right.
14:58
Don't have time to get into the details, but
15:01
constitutionality of the Social Security Act
15:04
was affirmed by two different cases. The Steward
15:08
Machine Company v. Davis and Helvering v. Davis.
15:13
Both of these were test cases essentially to...
15:19
see whether social security could even go through
15:23
um they were and that's really the main importance
15:30
of it was just to affirm the uh social security
15:36
act as being something that's constitutional
15:38
okay at least in terms of the the broader context
15:41
of history okay if you do want to learn more
15:44
by all means there's a lot of information about
15:47
this everywhere online. And a lot of it is really
15:50
fascinating to read, but just don't have the
15:53
time to talk about it here. And now I kind of
15:58
want to talk about like the implementation of
16:02
the act after being passed in August of 1935.
16:07
Okay. So the first reported social security payment
16:11
was to Ernest Ackerman. He was a motorman from
16:16
Cleveland who retired the day after Social Security
16:19
began. Okay. All right. So the last pay period,
16:27
he had one day's worth of tax taken out. And
16:32
that was five cents. Wow. For the final pay period.
16:37
He received a lump sum payment of 17 cents from
16:42
Social Security. The next month. Wow. Okay. All
16:46
right. It was like January 31st, 1937, I believe,
16:53
is when he received it. We got to figure out
16:59
how to make this work better. Going forward.
17:04
Yeah. And the first monthly payment was issued
17:07
on January 31st. of 1940 to Ida Mae Fuller of
17:12
Ludlow, Vermont. In 1937, 38, and 39, the first
17:19
three years Social Security was on the books,
17:22
she paid a total of $24 .75 into the Social Security
17:27
system. So that was the amount taken out of her
17:31
paychecks in taxes. Her first check was for a
17:36
grand total of $22 .54, meaning that by the second
17:42
month she collected, by February, she had already
17:47
exceeded her total amount paid into the system
17:49
in terms of what she received. collected a grand
17:55
total of $22 ,888 .92 by the time of her death
18:01
in 1975 at the age of 100. Ah, okay. And I think
18:08
I saw that she was a few weeks shy of turning
18:13
101. So she had a very long life, surprisingly
18:21
long life. Considering, you know, the statistics
18:26
of the average American at the time and why they
18:30
chose the age of 65 as being the retirement age
18:32
at the time. So like 1975 is when she passed
18:35
away at 100. Yeah, no, she was she was. Yeah,
18:39
that was the mortality status. OK. And so what
18:47
were the effects of like Social Security over
18:49
time? I mean. It's one of these things like,
18:53
oh, yeah, everyone gets a certain amount paid
18:56
out every month. But what are the real effects
18:59
of doing that? Why is that important? Well, in
19:04
1950, as many as 40 % of Americans over the age
19:09
of 65 were employed in some capacity. Meaning
19:14
they did not have enough retirement savings to
19:16
be able to fully retire at the age of 65. Maybe
19:19
they retire from their career, but then they
19:21
get a job at, say, a Walmart as a greeter or
19:24
something like that. By 1980, the figure had
19:30
dropped to less than 20%, culminating in an all
19:34
-time low of 11 % by 1990. So this dropped the
19:40
number of people who were unable. Due to a lack
19:43
of savings or a lack of planning to be able to
19:47
retire and have at least some time to just rest
19:51
after they worked. Huge deal. Another big thing
19:59
that was a massive deal is that people over the
20:02
age of 65 had the highest poverty rate of any
20:06
age group in the US in the 1950s. And the largest
20:10
percentage of the nation's wealth was concentrated
20:12
in the hands of Americans under the age of 35.
20:16
Okay. Now, in my life, that has never been the
20:22
case. But by 2010, this was reversed with the
20:26
largest percentage of wealth being in the hands
20:28
of Americans age 55 to 75, and those under 45
20:32
being among the poorest. And this means that...
20:38
Elder poverty, which was once an extremely common
20:42
sight here in America, was almost entirely eliminated.
20:46
I think the percentage is less than 10 % now.
20:51
So Social Security as a program has overperformed,
20:58
I think, based on what it was intended to do,
21:02
which was to provide people with the ability
21:04
to retire. You know, get more people who are
21:09
younger into the workforce and advancing faster.
21:12
Right. All right. So now I kind of want to just
21:21
talk about some of the amendments in the 1950s
21:24
and 60s. There have been a number of changes
21:26
over the years to Social Security. And this happened
21:30
in every decade. But for the purposes of our
21:34
interests. The 1950s and 60s are really the most
21:38
interesting to me. And I think that'll become
21:41
apparent as we go through them. So in 1950, household
21:47
employees working at least two days a week for
21:49
the same person were added to Social Security.
21:52
So people who were maids working for one person
21:56
or some sort of indentured servant were added
22:02
to the Social Security scheme. Massive deal.
22:07
Hotel workers, laundry workers, all agricultural
22:10
workers and state and local government employees
22:12
were added in 1954. The tax rate that was taken
22:18
out of people's paychecks for FICA taxes was
22:21
increased to 4%, split 2 % between the employer
22:25
and 2 % the employee. Disability benefits were
22:30
also added in the same year. Women were allowed
22:36
to retire at the age of 62 with benefits reduced
22:38
by 25%. And widows of covered workers were allowed
22:42
to retire at 62 without a reduction in benefits.
22:44
Also in 1956. Okay. Retirement at the age of
22:50
62 was extended to men and the tax rate increased
22:53
to 6%. So three and three. Employer employee.
22:59
1962. Also recognized the increased role of women
23:06
in the workplace, allowing dependent husbands,
23:08
widowers, and children to collect benefits. And
23:12
the Social Security Act of 1965 added Medicare
23:15
and Medicaid as part of Lyndon B. Johnson's Great
23:18
Society program. In 1965 also, the age at which
23:26
widows could begin collecting benefits was reduced
23:28
to 60. widowers were not included in this change.
23:33
When divorce became the major cause of marriages
23:36
ending, divorcees were added to the list of recipients.
23:40
Okay. Now, this was pretty strict. You had to
23:44
be over the age of 65, married for at least 20
23:47
years, and prove dependency on ex -husband. Right.
23:52
Yeah. So, it was pretty limited. But this was
24:00
a major step forward, given, you know, how much
24:04
no -fault divorce was increasing at the time.
24:08
Exactly. I was going to say, also, this was a
24:09
reflection of the times, too. You know, how you
24:12
were expected to be. Yeah, yeah. I mean, anyway,
24:15
another time, another podcast. Right. Well, exactly.
24:20
And something that has been kind of an issue
24:23
for Social Security over time, and I decided
24:25
to include it into this list. is in 1968, there
24:30
was a unified budget that was adopted, which
24:34
means that the entire sum of all government activity
24:37
was a single measure of the fiscal status. So
24:42
what this means, practically, is that the national
24:49
debt is offset by using the surplus in programs
24:54
like Social Security trust funds. And there's
24:58
all sorts of different trust funds throughout
25:00
the government that make the debt appear much
25:04
smaller than it otherwise would. Because essentially
25:07
what they're doing is they're increasing the
25:11
credit worthiness of the country against the
25:14
debt by taking these programs and saying, oh,
25:17
we have a trust fund here. This is a lion -eyed
25:20
budget that actually puts us in the green or
25:22
in the black, right? You know, it's fudgy accounting.
25:30
You know, there are some equivalencies for, you
25:33
know, household incomes, right, or household
25:35
budgets. But this has allowed them to kind of
25:39
hollow out Social Security over time from the
25:43
inside. Because you have the trust fund there,
25:48
it's going to hollow it out over time, regardless.
25:52
This allowed Congress to... spend money without
25:55
raising taxes too, which as we all know is political
26:01
suicide in this country. Uh, probably everywhere,
26:05
but it's actually a problem here in this country.
26:09
Uh, so I do want to kind of go back though to
26:17
1956 and start talking a little bit more about
26:19
disability benefits. Okay. Because, you know,
26:24
We are Disability Pride Pennsylvania. It's a
26:28
little more interesting to talk about things
26:31
that affect disabled people for us. So let's
26:35
talk about Social Security Disability Insurance.
26:38
And you're saying this all started in 1956? It
26:43
was officially formally passed and added into
26:46
Social Security, yes. Okay. It is shortened to
26:50
SSDI, and that is how I will be referring to
26:53
it almost exclusively from here on out because
26:55
it's just too long to say all four words. But
26:58
it provides benefits to people who have a medically
27:02
determinable disability restricting their employment
27:05
opportunities. So what does that mean? Well,
27:11
they only pay full benefits. And only in cases
27:16
in which the disability is expected to last at
27:18
least one year or result in death. So it has
27:23
to be so significant that you're not going to
27:26
recover quickly. Right. It is distinct from supplemental
27:33
security income, which is kind of your regular
27:36
Social Security payments that retired people
27:41
take. But it's distinct from supplemental security
27:45
income in that they are not based on prior contribution
27:49
credits earned through work. Okay. So if you
27:54
are a disabled individual, you can apply for
27:57
SSDI at any point in your life and you will receive
28:01
based on what you were making, but it will not
28:06
be counted against how much you paid into the
28:11
system. Right. At the end of 2020, 9 .7 million
28:18
Americans received benefits from the SSDI program.
28:22
And I can actually break this down for you into
28:26
like who exactly made up the demographics. So
28:31
8 .2 million disabled workers, 1 .4 million children
28:37
of disabled workers, and 100 ,000 spouses of
28:42
disabled workers. Okay. Roughly received benefits
28:48
in 2020. Children and spouses are sometimes referred
28:54
to as auxiliary beneficiaries due to the fact
28:57
that they receive benefits based on their relationship
29:00
to a disabled individual, but not because they
29:03
themselves are disabled either physically or
29:07
mentally. The number of disabled workers on the
29:16
rolls peaked in 2014 at 9 million. And beneficiaries
29:22
grew rapidly between 1990 and 2010 before leveling
29:28
off and declining in recent years. There's kind
29:33
of two schools of thought. There's a more conservative
29:35
school of thought and a more progressive school
29:39
of thought. So what were those thoughts? Well,
29:44
according to David Autor and Mark Dugan, policy
29:48
changes and earnings patterns were responsible
29:51
for growth. Well, what does that mean? So an
29:55
SSDI reform act loosened the disability screening
29:59
process, leading to more SSDI awards and shifting
30:02
towards claimants with, quote, low mortality
30:06
disorders. Not sure what that fully means, but
30:13
they defined it as back pain and mental illness.
30:17
Okay. Which I don't know. I'm fairly young. I
30:24
haven't had too much issues with back pain, but
30:26
when I do have it, I don't understand how anyone
30:29
minimizes it. It's terrible. So I don't know.
30:38
But anyways, SSDI benefits rose in value relative
30:42
to what recipients would have earned from employment,
30:45
prompting greater numbers of individuals to seek
30:48
benefits, according to Autor and Dugan. There
30:56
may be something to some of the arguments here.
31:00
It does kind of, based on my reading, feel like
31:05
they are. blaming a symptom and not the cause
31:08
right as much but you know what do i know i'm
31:15
not a an economist by any means uh another school
31:21
of thought regarding this trend emphasizes the
31:24
demographic factors so what are we talking about
31:27
so population growth is a big factor here I mean,
31:33
in 1990, what was the population of the U .S.?
31:35
What do you think, Ray? Oh, I don't know. I mean,
31:38
definitely, you know, a couple hundred million,
31:41
a few hundred million. Yeah, okay. So the actual
31:45
number was 250 .1 million people. Okay. By 2020,
31:51
do you know how much it grew? Probably another
31:54
hundred million. You're not that far off. It's
31:58
a little less than what you said, but it was
32:00
331 .5 million. So that's 80 million people.
32:05
Yeah, a lot of babies are going on. Anyway, but
32:07
yeah. So that's a big factor right there. I mean,
32:15
when you have a larger population, of course,
32:17
there's going to be a larger proportion of people
32:19
or larger number, excuse me, not proportion,
32:22
larger number of people who are going to need
32:25
to. have access to certain things like social
32:29
security disability benefits. Yeah. Another thing
32:34
that's a big factor here is the, just the aging
32:37
of baby boomers. Yeah. You know, they, they get
32:43
to a certain age and well, most people experience
32:47
some form of a disability in old age. Right.
32:53
As to whether, you know, you start having the
32:56
disability, say, in your late 40s, early 50s,
33:00
or, you know, you're lucky and it bypasses you
33:04
until your 70s or 80s, doesn't really make much
33:08
of a difference. I will say for the purposes
33:14
of the program, you know, they only have people
33:18
at the age of 65 on the disability insurance.
33:23
you know, the fact of the matter is, is that
33:26
a lot of baby boomers did not always take the
33:31
best care of themselves when they were youngins.
33:34
Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah. And so a lot of baby boomers
33:39
have the complications that come along with that
33:43
kind of lifestyle where you don't really take
33:45
care of yourself for the first couple of decades
33:48
of your adult life. And suddenly you have issues
33:52
with heart disease and diabetes and, you know,
33:55
whatever other condition they may have or, you
34:00
know, cancer risks shoots through the roof. Yeah,
34:02
exactly. The environment. Right. So my feeling
34:09
here is like, yes, the aging of the baby boom
34:13
population may have been a factor here, but there
34:16
also is the secondary fact that a lot of baby
34:18
boomers did just. didn't necessarily feel like
34:21
they needed to take care of themselves at as
34:23
early an age as some other generations did, as
34:28
well as, you know, here in America, we especially
34:31
don't feel like we need to work on things sometimes
34:34
when in other places there might be more emphasis
34:38
on, I don't know, moving around or, or eating
34:41
healthier or whatever, whatever things. Better
34:45
working conditions. Oh, better working conditions
34:47
too. You're totally right about all of that.
34:51
Also, access to mental health care is a major
34:54
factor here, too. But we're not going to get
34:55
into more of those kinds of details right now.
34:59
Another big factor is the growth in women's labor
35:05
force participation. So, you know, women in the
35:11
labor force. In 1990, it was 57 .5 % of women
35:20
were working in some capacity. This proportion
35:26
peaked in 1999 at 60%. And in 2023, which is
35:34
the most recent year that I could get data from,
35:37
it was 57 .3 % of women who are working. At the
35:45
end of the day, when you think about it, the
35:47
40s and 50s, outside of the war effort, the women's
35:54
participation in the labor force was much smaller
35:57
as a proportion. Yeah, they were supposed to
36:01
be June Cleaver after the war. Right, exactly.
36:07
There's a lot of reasons why that changed over
36:09
time that we're not going to get into. Certainly
36:13
the cost of goods and cost of living going up
36:15
certainly has gotten to the point where – Civil
36:18
rights climate. Yeah. Women's live. Yeah. Yeah.
36:24
Another podcast for another time. Exactly. Exactly.
36:28
And then there also was an increase in the full
36:32
retirement age for Social Security. I believe
36:35
it was 10 or 15 years ago. I remember this being
36:38
debated when I was in college, if I remember
36:41
correctly. So it got raised from 65 to 66, which
36:47
one year doesn't seem like much of a difference,
36:49
but apparently that saved billions of dollars
36:54
over 10 years. So I don't know how the math works
37:00
here, but that's what I heard. Okay. Something
37:07
else that's kind of important here to think about
37:11
in terms of the context of Social Security disability
37:14
insurance is that recipients of SSDI tend to
37:20
have high levels of poverty relative to other
37:23
Social Security beneficiaries. Right. Approximately
37:28
24 % of disabled workers have a family income
37:31
below the official poverty level in the U .S.
37:35
compared to only 7 .1 % of retired workers. Approximately
37:42
38 % of SSDI beneficiaries experience material
37:46
hardship, things like low or no food security,
37:50
an inability to pay bills or housing costs, or
37:56
to even have things that I consider them utilities,
38:02
but they're technically not, things like internet
38:05
in your home or buying a cell phone or having
38:12
a cell phone plan. That could be burdensome for
38:14
a lot of people who are on SSDI. Approximately
38:22
72 % of SSDI recipients are between the age of
38:26
50 and 66. So that suggests that a large proportion
38:32
of people who are on SSDI become disabled later
38:37
in life in some fashion. And 24 % of all SSDI
38:44
recipients are Black. Okay. Many recipients do
38:52
receive Medicaid due to their low income level.
38:55
Right. And the average monthly benefit paid to
38:58
disabled workers was about $1 ,260 in 2019. Approximately
39:06
36 % receive a monthly benefit under $1 ,000,
39:12
which wild to me. Yeah. The amount is dependent
39:18
upon your previous earnings prior to becoming
39:20
eligible for SSDI. And primary insurance amount
39:25
is what? gets paid out to people and this is
39:29
a formula that's computed uh including workers
39:34
past earnings wage growth in the economy prior
39:37
to the disability onset and a benefit formula
39:40
that weights lower earners higher greater than
39:43
higher earners so it is progressive in how this
39:48
gets calculated uh the amount that Each disabled
39:53
individual receives is equal to 100 % of the
39:57
PIA. Eligible spouse or child, excuse me, an
40:03
eligible spouse or children of the disabled worker
40:07
can receive 50 % of the PIA as a benefit amount,
40:12
but total payments to a family are subject to
40:14
a maximum. Okay. As with any social programs.
40:21
These also replace a larger share of past earnings
40:24
for low earners and increase with price inflation
40:27
upon an individual's enrollment and benefits.
40:30
Got it. Yeah. Which that didn't seem to happen
40:35
so much in those earlier years. Right. Well,
40:39
cost of living adjustments for Social Security
40:43
were often stagnant for a long time. Right. Like
40:48
you said. I believe it wasn't until the 70s that
40:52
there were some pretty radical changes made to
40:55
that part of Social Security. Yeah, exactly.
40:58
Well, so that's about it, I guess. That's about
41:06
all I really felt like I could research. But,
41:10
you know, I think this is an important topic
41:14
to really discuss because... I think it helps
41:18
to kind of contextualize why, you know, having
41:24
independence can be difficult for a lot of disabled
41:27
individuals because we essentially force a lot
41:32
of disabled individuals to live in poverty just
41:36
to be by themselves or, or independent. Right.
41:41
And, and get the services that they really need
41:43
to survive, which. Yeah. Unfortunate. Yeah. OK.
41:51
It's really crazy because like I never really
41:55
thought about how young it is, the Social Security
41:59
program. You know, I mean, like I mean, like
42:03
it wasn't even thought about until like the 30s.
42:05
I mean, you can never think about this stuff,
42:07
you know. So this has been fascinating, you know,
42:10
learning the history of it, you know, and the
42:12
evolution of it, too. You know, looking at the,
42:15
you know, periods in time during, you know, that
42:18
last century as it was evolving, developing and
42:22
the things that it went through. Well, I guess
42:27
this brings us to a close. Yeah. Yeah. So thanks,
42:32
everyone, for watching or listening. Watching.
42:36
What am I? On TV. Well, they're looking at the
42:41
graphic that's on the screen, right? Yeah. Anyways,
42:46
thanks for tuning in, everyone. You know, if
42:50
you enjoyed our show, please like, comment, share.
42:54
We'd love to continue this conversation online
42:56
and talk more about anything that you want to
43:01
talk about regarding this. Ray, do you have anything
43:07
else you want to talk about? I have nothing else.
43:10
All right. Well, everyone, until the next time
43:15
we release, have a good time. Bye -bye. Please
43:21
visit our accessible website at www .disabilitypridepa
43:27
.org. You can find us on social media at Disability
43:32
Pride PA on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.