Just for the record, I was there during the Depression and Steinbeck's "Grapes" is a monumental telling of truth as to how it was in the 1930's.
And now, today, America's economy sits on a ledge similar to that shortly before the 1929 market collapse, and you ain't seen nothing yet.
My advice ... be prepared.
That is not what we're talking about here.
The whole thing was used to sell Socialism/Communism.
Those things are not the answer.