Things like the New Deal only came about because of the sheer desperation and poverty inflicted upon the masses during the darkest years of the Great Depression. If there had been no Great Depression, there likely never would've been the New Deal, and few if any of these assistance programs would even exist today.

It's very easy to judge people, in a culture where judgment seems something to be demanded upon all others. Only when walking a mile in another's shoes do people finally get it that those who need help aren't all bad.

Americans "got it" when a full third of the nation was unemployed in the 1930s. I fear Americans have forgotten those bitter lessons, the bitter harvests, and the anguish that came from realizing that they had lost everything and were just another among the poor. Must people relearn the bitter lessons of the past?