 The U.S. was the only industrial country at the time without Social Security. Germany had enacted theirs in 1880. France and UK in the early 1900s had Social Security. But until 1935, a dozen states had old age insurance, but most were underfunded. You think of the U.S. as first mover in a lot of these areas, but it surprised me to know that we were the last ones to jump on the Social Security bandwagon.