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It would take a hundred books to adequately examine that subject. By 1890, America had prospered enough that wives no longer had to work outside the home to help support the family. They considered that to be the highest achievement in the history of mankind. In 1913 the Federal Reserve Act was passed and it took less than twenty years to trash the country, bringing on what is still considered to be the low point of the nation's history. Here are some essays analyzing those conditions: www.shtfplan.com/category/howard-katz
"Grapes Of Wrath" was set in the depression years. The movie was shown in Russia to illustrate the oppression of the working class. What the Russian viewers saw was that in America even the poorest family could own a car. Americans pay lip service to freedom until somebody seems to be actually free. Then they start saying "We gotta put a stop to that." Laws were passed requiring cars to be registered, drivers to be licensed, inspections, insurance, seat belts, and on and on until now the cost of owning a car is no longer within the means of a poor family.
One of the items in the communist manifesto is a graduated income tax. That means people with higher income pay a higher percent in tax. That allows people who get rich without earning income to keep most or all their money, while people who work for wages or salaries get socked harder. Here is a book about that: www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=irwin%20schiff Bear in mind that the author of these books died in prison.