The social security instituted by the government
The social security instituted by the government created a payroll tax that is paid equivalently by all employees irrespective of their earnings. Under this system, the employer and the employee both contribute to a kitty by splitting the cost. The employer is taxed before he pays the employee, and the employee is taxed after receiving the tax. This is a money transfer program since money taken from current employees is not saved but used to pay retirees who don’t contribute currently but had made their contributions when they were working. The general welfare clause allowed the government to collect tax for things that benefit everyone, unlike the social security act that was offering exclusive benefits. Fearing court challenges, President Roosevelt decided to split the social security act into two parts that allowed collection for the general welfare and another that allowed for exclusive benefit. In the social security system, a right is a mere entitlement to that good (pension), but not a specific amount of it that warrants challenge in court if not granted. The political majority maintains dominion over the amounts and the existence of the fund.
President Roosevelt proposed a second set of laws on the backing that the existent bill of right was not exhaustive of the level of government control. One of the rights that was proposed by Roosevelt was the healthcare act that would see the transfer of public funds to hospitals to enable necessary access to healthcare. Under such a law, a patient would be entitled to healthcare, as a right, but not have autonomy over the execution of that right. Such independence remained with the political majority that can define the extent of the exercise of such a right. Likewise, Roosevelt proposed the right to freedom from unfair competition. This legislation was meant to protect the companies by having the government help keep the prices of goods up in a bid to transfer money from consumers to companies.
Roosevelt also proposed the right of a farmer to live a decent life. This proposition was meant to transfer money from consumers to agricultural companies. It did this by keeping the prices of agricultural goods high and maintained legal policing against any company that appeared to mock this rule. These rights were an addition to the natural law, and nobody had an absolute claim to them. They were rights that ca be repealed or amended by the political majority. There is no guarantee that everyone can fully benefit from them. In the course of pursuing them, some might fail but can not move to a court to challenge such a predicament given that they are not legally binding.
A welfare state is a state with money transfer programs to benefit its citizens with low income such as orphaned children and those from poor backgrounds as well as those without low income but needs assistance like the less healthy or retirees. Capitalism in the welfare state asserts that it is the best economic system that can allow the government to collect enough money to enable it to support its welfare programs. This is in contrast to socialism that has been noticed in India and other similar systems that have failed to realize any significant economic growth. The capitalism system has been supported by the evidence of exponential growth of the US economy by over 200 per cent from 1900 to 2000.
President Harry Truman was the vice president during the reign of President Roosevelt and took power at the latter’s death in 1945 on approval of the congress. He endeavoured to carry own with the legal projects that his predecessor had started. One of his early efforts was to try and implement the right to a job that did not fully take root and instead resulted in the birth of a select economic advisory committee to the Presidency. He also tried to institute full health insurance for Americans in 1945 in attempting to introduce payroll tax. This tax, as opposed to income tax, was to be paid by everyone equally irrespective of their income. However, his plan did not succeed. Truman embarked on a mission to ensure racial equality, being instrumental in the shake-up of the army to abolish the racial ranking systems of the military that gave whites more advantages.
After the assassination of President John Kennedy in 1963, Lyndon Johnson took power and started a perfect-state promise campaign in gear up for the elections in the following year. His promises were based on a perfect society laced with a mixture of military and religious lingua. His reign saw radical mop ups against racism with several abolishment laws that opened up the social, economic (workplace) and political (voting rights) space for the black community in a bid to realize equality. He went further to pass legislation that created Medicare and Medicaid to give health coverage to the elderly and low-income people. Additionally, he came up with a project to transform the faces of American cities. His big dream was undermined by the political dynamics of the time characterized by an increased risk in black civil rights protests as well as student protests.
In the early 1970s, the American economy that had been thought to be steady w3as beginning to experience problems famously referred to as stagflation. The rate of inflation as well as employment was rising steadily through the years and reached a combined 9 per cent by 1975. As it continued baffling economists who had thought rising unemployment was inversely proportional to increasing inflation, the two phenomena steadied for a short period only to plummet again by the end of that decade. Conservative president Ronald Reagan came into power and introduced people-based measures to save the economy. One of them was reducing income tax as well as shoving back the control of prices to market forces, especially for oil and gas. By increasing spending on the military, Reagan had enough money left for money transfer programs for the welfare state.
However, funding the American welfare state isn’t so smooth. By 2018, the American welfare state was over 21 trillion dollars in debt. This colossal amount is attributed to the social welfare programs enjoyed by Americans; specifically, Medicare and Medicaid that constitute the bulk of government spending. The number of people in need of social welfare funding is growing faster than the economy and taxation can catch up. This continues to be the biggest challenge facing welfare programs and is likely to continue.