CSheridan;What If Benchmark

            For my project, I decided to change the history of the Social Security Act. My main question was “What if the Social Security Act was not passed by Congress?” After researching about this topic, I found out that this act helped provide financial support to the homeless, unemployed, elderly, and disabled. It gave them a small income just so they were able to obtain the proper necessities of life. During the Great Depression, unemployment devastated the lives of individuals and had a critical effect on the economy. Older Americans as a group was particularly affected by this crisis even though improvements in medicine meant people were living longer. Yet many elderly Americans faced age discrimination that made it difficult to find employment. The Social Security Act basically provided unemployment insurance for workers, aid to needy children who had lost one or both parents, and disability insurance for workers who could not work on account of an injury.           

            The future that I envisioned resulting from my POD was that young adults were not gaining jobs due to the fact that older workers had first priority. Also, from this drastic change it left the sick and homeless with no hope to living a normal life. From all this, the unemployment rate would continue to increase and eventually leading to massive protests and riots against the government.

            The most challenging thing about this project was connecting actual primary sources to my new topic since they were completely different events. I was able to relate pictures to my POD because they are more flexible and can be changed easily. I really liked how I could choose my own idea and develop my own masterpiece. It was difficult at times to make something that did not have a drastic domino effect on society, but after several tries I was able to choose something I am proud of. If I could do this project all over again, I would probably add more fake primary sources because that is when you can add creativity to your final product. For example, I really wanted to make a video newscast of my POD so it was as if it was realistic. Overall, I am very satisfied with my final product, and it is something that I am really proud of.