We don't know how to do without. We now require instant gratification. If that means killing someone so that I don't have to skip breakfast tomorrow -- well, what's more important than me??
That's my concern also. Back then people tended to blame themselves and just sucked it up.
During my tramp printer days in the '50s-'60s, I worked mostly the country weeklies. (I was trying to get a driver's license from every state in the Union but gave it up when Alaska and Hawaii came in.) Anyhow, I made a point to talk to as many people as possible who went through the Depression. Short story - the folks in the cities starved, the folks who could hang on to their farms didn't have any money but at least the ate and had a bed. Some stories boggled my mind and gave me the uneasy feeling that I wouldn't survive in some cases. I fear I may be tested in those areas.
Just a couple of 'em for posterity's sake:
1) A guy who worked in a mortuary kept a box full of false teeth taken out of the cadavers. Some old-timer would knock on the back door and ask to try on a pair, and kept at it until he got a close fit. I always wondered if they were washed beforehand.
2) An older black man knocked at a farmhouse door, asking if he could work for a meal. The famer jokingly said that he could either have a meal or an old suit of clothes he had. The old man said, "Well, folks can't see how hungry I am, but they can see that I'm shabby. I guess I'll take the clothes." The farmer choked up and gave him both, as he would have anyway.
3) One guy told me he still had a box full of 1870s coins, although most were pretty well worn. I asked them how he got them and he said that he ran a gas station back then and people would pay for gas with old coins they had been saving. I expect to see the pre-64 coins used the same way - at face value.
There's lots of books out there with similar stories; one by Studs Terkel is a good start. It may be a primer.