On this day, January 28, in 1932

Governor Philip LaFollette of Wisconsin signed the nations first ever unemployment compensation law. Three years later, the federal Social Security Act of 1935 established a national unemployment insurance program, designed to work with the individual state programs. The unemployment compensation program provides workers who have lost their jobs with monetary compensation for a given period of time, or until they find a new job. This is supposed to provide an unemployed worker enough time to find a new job equivalent to their old one. Another important aspect of this program is its guarantee to sustain consumer spending during periods of economic hardship and high unemployment. I suppose this makes sense in the context of a Capitalist society.