A teacher in my youth often railed against social security, so I asked an older friend why the program was so controversial. He had worked for the WPA during the depression, and recounted for me with teary eyes the long soup lines and the desperation of good people who couldn’t find work because of national economic failures. He told me that FDR had done a good thing, and that the real reason behind social security legislation was to insure that the richest country in the world would never leave old people to die in the streets, a tragic situation which might also foment revolution.

And indeed, a national or global crisis could plausibly occur again soon, arising from a number of contemporary as well as timeless scenarios, including disasters arising from war, terrorism, plague, economic uncertainties, and nature’s unpredictable catastrophes. During such events, many American citizens will be unable to provide for themselves. Without a reliable and universal social security program, our government will once again be forced to choose between stepping up and doling out additional taxpayer money to feed, house, and clothe the destitute–or to do the unthinkable and abandon their own, as capitalism’s collateral damage.

Social security has changed America’s face; today we see smiling seniors enjoying one another’s company for hours over McDonald’s coffee, where yesterday we saw gaunt haunted faces staring bleakly out of dirty windows.

Americans do not yet embrace FDR’s fourth freedom: freedom from want. Until we do, social security must simply insure that any American who someday ends up with too little money to survive will at least be able to get by. No one plans to be poor in old age; some of us are smarter, have more opportunities, more education, better values, are harder-working, bolder, more responsible, more talented, or luckier than some others. Social Security was never designed to give even greater success to those who already enjoy the rewards their own gifts and their country’s have provided. If the American people want to give everyone an opportunity to save, we should insist on thoughtful policies assuring a living wage for those who work hard and play by the rules.