Economic Security 2000

Economic Security 2000 Founder and President Sam Beard entered the Social Security debate based on 31 years of work in economic development. He has been a leader in job creation and economic development in America's poorest urban and rural communities. While serving as Staff Associate to Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-NY), Mr. Beard worked on the 1965 economic renewal program for Bedford-Stuyvesant, a low-income community in Brooklyn, New York. In 1969, Mr. Beard founded the National Development Council (NDC), a national nonprofit organization dedicated to developing local economies. The NDC has run job creation and economic development initiatives for Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan, attracting more than $25 billion of private sector investments and creating over 500,000 private sector jobs. In 1972, Mr. Beard established the American Institute for Public Service and the Jefferson Awards, which recognize both ordinary people who do extraordinary things and individuals whose public service has had a more public impact on the nation as a whole. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Sen. Robert Taft, Jr. were the founding Co-Chairs. Mr. Beard believes that the Social Security debate must be focused on the need to create savings and wealth for all Americans. Mr. Beard is a graduate of Yale University and earned an M.A. in History from Columbia University. He is married, the father of three children, and resides in Wilmington, Delaware. He is the author of Restoring Hope in America: The Social Security Solution, published in 1996 by ICS Press. "One third of all income comes from savings and wealth," he has said. "We can do better for the people who are being cut out of the American dream. Let's create equal economic opportunity for all Americans by opening a new savings agenda through Social Security."