Social Security began during the Great Depression to assist the elderly. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the original Social Security Act into law in 1935 to combat unemployment and poverty and provide benefits for surviving family members. The original provisions of the act excluded many service categories, including agricultural and domestic workers, but today Social Security benefits are paid for all industries.
As of 2007 the Social Security program has paid over $594.5 Billion dollars.
The money that people pay into it should go back to them. The money should not go to those who did not try to get a job. People should have held a job and only get the total of the amount hat they paid into the social security program. If not kill the program and make people be responsible for their own retirement.
http://www.ehow.com/about_4586912_what-purpose-social-security.html
http://www.justfacts.com/socialsecurity.essentials.asp#Overview
