If you've got unemployment, low pay, that was just too bad. But that was the system. That was the sort of economy and philosophy against which I was fighting in the 1930s.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The 1930s had been a time of tremendous economic distress. And the unemployment rate was enormously high by any historic standard.
In my right-wing politics of the time, I held that unemployment was usually the fault of the unemployed.
When I was born, the economy wasn't in a great state; it was the Depression, and my father had to be quick to try and find work.
In the 1930s one was aware of two great evils - mass unemployment and the threat of war.
For those unfortunate enough to experience it, long-term unemployment - now, as in the 1930s - is a tragedy. And, for society as a whole, there is the danger that the productive capacity of a significant portion of the labour force will be impaired.
In the 1960s, and stretching back to the 1930s, it was felt by many economists that easy money is a reliable way to increase employment.
Unemployment is sky-rocketing; deflation is in our future for the first time since the Great Depression. I don't care whose fault it is, it's the truth.
I grew up in an era when money was not readily available. We were into the post-Depression years and World War II.
In '86 or '87, the welfare lists were at the lowest level in 17 years. Why? Because the economy was the best it was in 17 years. There were jobs.
In the 1930s, unemployed working people could anticipate that their jobs would come back.