Well, I must concede you have an interesting point. What would the country look like if the Government withdrew its entitlement support? It would probably rival the Thirties. It will get very ugly when the entitlement tap finally runs dry and (again) when there are no more rich left to eat. What will make is worse is all the “clients” our Government has been rushing to import.
My own opinion is that it would be worse than the thirties.
Reason being that those who lived in the very large cities and were second generation city dwellers were the soup kitchen people.
But the US was still primarily an agricultural economy and many had kin that lived on the farm and so they went to live with their farmer families.
Farmers had no money either, but they had food.
We went to my aunt’s. She told me once that she had for one full year only $175 in cash.
But she had ham, sausage, eggs, milk, butter, the best cakes and pies you ever ate....
Canned vegetables, .....
We stayed two years.
I was just a kid, but I remember it very well.
Wood fires, wood cook stove in the kitchen, farmed with mules, hauled on a wagon made by my uncle. Only the wheels and the hardware was bought.
My point:
What percentage of the US population today has a family member living on a real food producing farm?
The lines in the soup kitchens would be much worse than the 1930’s if there were no cash assistance.
As you said, we still have soup kitchens. They just take a different form in the form of food stamps, welfare checks, unemployment checks, etc.
Without them, it would be much worse than the thirties.
We are in a depression now. We just do not recognize it because of the government’s smoke and mirrors.
LLS