Workers compensation was arguably the first widespread social insurance program in the United States before social security, Medicare, or unemployment insurance and the most successful form of labor legislation to emerge from the early progressive movement.
In A Prelude to the Welfare State, Price V. Fishback and Shawn Everett Kantor challenge widespread historical perceptions by arguing that workers compensation, rather than being an early progressive victory, succeeded because all relevant parties labor and management, insurance companies, lawyers, and legislators...

The urgent demand for housing after World War I fueled a boom in residential construction that led to historic peaks in home ownership. Foreclosures at the time were rare, and when they did happen, lenders could quickly recoup their losses by selling into a strong market. But no mortgage system is equipped to deal with credit problems on the scale of the Great Depression. As foreclosures quintupled, it became clear that the mortgage system of the 1920s was not up to the task, and borrowers, lenders, and real estate professionals sought action at the federal level. "
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