Pre-Social Security Period Traditional Sources of Economic
Security All peoples throughout all of human history have faced
the uncertainties brought on by unemployment, illness,
disability, death and old age. In the realm of economics, these
inevitable facets of life are said to be threats to one's
economic security. For the ancient Greeks economic security took
the form of amphorae of olive oil. Olive oil was very nutritious
and could be stored for relatively long periods. To provide for
themselves in times of need the Greeks stockpiled olive oil and
this was their form of economic security. In medieval Europe,
the feudal system was the basis of economic security, with the
feudal lord responsible for the economic survival of the serfs
working on the estate. The feudal lord had economic security as
long as there was a steady supply of serfs to work the estate,
and the serfs had economic security only so long as they were
fit enough to provide their labor. During the Middle Ages the
idea of charity as a formal