@jkjk

One Great Depression isn't a very large sample, so it's hard to tell if non-intervention would work. But I like the idea of public works projects, such as Roosevelt started in the 1930s. We could restore meanders to rivers, build rail-trails, clean up superfund sites, fix up the lodges in national parks, help poor states maintain their parks, build sidewalks in the benighted neighborhoods and plats of the past few decades where they weren't included.

The problem with this vision relates to the first comment (Barber-Moyers) above. Under current government, probably including a Democratic administration, the work would be outsourced, done by a corporation, perhaps Blackwater, rather than by a government agency as in the New Deal. This, of course, was already happening at least as early as the Eisenhower administration with the make-work Interstate Highway project.

Except for that, such intervention could help a lot of people.

Very clear analysis, Philip.