PERIODICALS
ECONOMICS. LABOR & BUSINESS
from economic hardship. Far from expecting ever higher living stan- dards, most 19th-century Americans worried about recurrent economic depressions. Since the Great Depression of the 1930s, however, federal social programs and fiscal policy have put "floors" under most eco- nomic activity. Social Security, unemployment compensation, parity payments to farmers, federally insured bank deposits, and public works programs provide "a degre...