It has seemed in recent years as if the nation's social security system is in a state of permanent crisis. But from its very beginnings almost fifty years ago, when it was a very different system, it has been under stress. Over the years, it has been gradually reshaped – expanded, broadened, and strengthened – to meet changing conditions and needs. Today, it enjoys a large measure of immunity from political attack. In fact, when the system was in the midst of yet another crisis just a few years ago, a bipartisan commission recommended new reforms that, once again, saved the system. In the last presidential election, both of the leading candidates made solemn vows to maintain its benefits.

So the system survives. Yet it is clear that its long-term solvency is far from assured. Indeed, the resort to short-term tinkering to shore it up means that facing the basic funding problem of the system has once again been postponed rather than resolved. For that reason, the Twentieth Century Fund decided that what was needed was a searching examination of how the system has evolved, an examination of its economic and social development and the ways in which it has managed to transform itself from a controversial political idea into a permanent – and still growing – institution with widespread support.

The Fund has had a long and continuing interest in the problems of security for retired Americans.