In case anyone is curious, please note the following excerpt from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_Act
> Job categories that were not covered by the act included workers in agricultural labor, domestic service, government employees, and many teachers, nurses, hospital employees, librarians, and social workers. As a result,
> > 65 percent of the African American workforce was excluded from the initial Social Security program (as well as 27 percent of white workers). Many of these workers were covered only later on, when Social Security was expanded in 1950 and then in 1954.
FDR’s racial attitudes (or perhaps rather lack of interest in the issue) is rarely discussed, so thanks for bringing that up as well.
Student debt problems are entirely self-inflicted. Students taking the loans made their own decisions. Social Security users have been paying for decades (not taking, as the student loan recipients were). Social Security users, especially those who have not yet started collecting, have worked decades to get their benefits back.
If students get their loans paid off before Social Security is fixed, it's a certain sign of corruption. (Votes for money.)
Use your votes to make government effective. Vote for politicians that pledge to fix Social Security.
Remember, older folks don't have time to remain in the labor force (unlike younger people, who will benefit from rising paychecks.) At the end of the spectrum, there is only what has been saved (which is reduced by inflation) and pensions, Social Security.
Since most of that 30% have low income and come from low income backgrounds it will be a struggle to get it passed. A shame as those are the ones that need it the most. It’s interesting to note that Social Security was designed to cover 100% of the population even though only a smaller segment needed it, specifically to make it harder to kill. For student debt that would be an impossible sum and unnecessary.