https://youtu.be/SnqVkTkaXDc Building Comprehensive Social Security Systems 1900 - 2012. 2019 is a year of celebration for the International Labour Organisation (ILO), because this UN Agency celebrates its 100th anniversary. The ILO is the only tripartite UN Agency. The formal gates of the ILO building even require three keys to open, symbolizing the equal contributions of … Continue reading ILO – 100 Years of Promoting Social Security →

During the 19th century, mutualism and various forms of self-help were widely considered to be the best way to deal with the “social question”, the precarity of the industrialized working class. It was a vision that was for a long-time shared by liberals, catholics and other religiously inspired politicians, and even socialists. In Germany, however, … Continue reading 1881 – The Story of Compulsory Social Insurance. →

World War II played a crucial role in the development of social security in Western Europe. Social security became an important part of the Allies' vision for the organization of post-war society. The driving factors were unmistakably the experience of the crisis of the 1930s and the fear of post-war destabilization, reinforced by the popularity … Continue reading The Spirit of 1944 →

When Belgium’s social security system celebrated its 70th anniversary, Belgium's Federal Public Service (the federal ministry) Social Security launched a campaign titled “one for all, all for one”. The objective of the campaign was to mark the 70th anniversary, but this was seen as an opportunity to remind the Belgian population that their social security … Continue reading One for all, all for one. →

https://youtu.be/p2p7AzOixNI In 1935 the Social Security Act was enacted by the US Congress and signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. While the concept of social security was not an American idea, the term “social security” was first coined by an American, Abraham “Abe” Epstein, a national leader in the social welfare movement in the first … Continue reading The Origin of the Term Social Security →

Thanks for joining me! “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” —African Proverb.