other people notice consumption expenditures. The index ranks automobiles as
the second most visible consumption category, out of thirty-one categories,
second only to cigarettes.25 If you no longer want to look rich, skipping a new
car might be the best thing to do.
The feedback loop soon became apparent: some people postponed buying a
car or other major consumer items, which led to loss of jobs in the auto and
consumer-products industries, which led to more postponement, which led to a
second round of job loss, and so on for several years. The numbers tell the tale:
sales of new cars by Ford Motor Company, which had adopted many labor-
saving mass-production machines, fell 86% from 1929 to 1932.
Why was the feedback loop so severe, and why did it happen when it did? To
answer these questions, we have to look more closely at the underlying
narratives. In the home, there was trouble with the sudden increase in leisure.
One anonymous woman wrote to Confidential Chat in 1932:
Dear Globe Sisters—May I come to this wonderful column with my problem?
I have been married six years and have two children. We were married when
quite young and unfortunately my husband had no special trade. I worked,
too, but when our first baby was born I had to quit. I got him to take a course
to advance himself and I paid for this, also all expenses connected with the
baby and our living expenses while he was not working. He worked steadily
until a year ago and then like so many others he was laid off. Since then he
has had only a few days now and then. I could not work last Summer, as my
second baby was only a few months old. This Winter we have spent with
relations and I have been helping with the work, occasionally at sewing or
nursing, but we don’t get by and I am worried.
What bothers me most is the attitude of my husband. It doesn’t seem to
bother him much of any to live like this. I would hate to have it thrown at my
children that they were on the town. I feel the way things are now that we are
just living on charity, and this can’t go on forever.
Is this attitude on the part of my husband my fault for working in the
beginning or is it his fault for being so slow to take the responsibility? Don’t
think that my husband isn’t a good man, for he is a fine fellow in many
respects, but he seems to entirely lack any money-making ability. When I
earn a few dollars he thinks it is all right for me to take it and pay the bills. I
feel so ashamed. I can’t accustom myself to a man taking money from a

woman, even if she is his wife.
Is there anything I can do to bring him to his senses? I could not let my
own people know of this situation. I have the promise of a good job soon
myself. If I get it I feel that I shall just pay the children’s board and let him
shift for himself. Would this do any good, do you think? Please welcome me
and advise me.
Lucy Ambler.26
Lucy had to be reminded, by one of the “Globe Sisters,” that her husband’s
problems were not her husband’s fault:
Dear Lucy Ambler—Your letter regarding an irresponsible husband certainly
aroused my interest. I am married to a man who is like your husband in many
respects and I think we have a great deal for which to be thankful. You say he
is a good man and a fine fellow. Is he to blame if like millions of others he
finds himself with no means of support? If he always worked steadily until a
year ago and did his best for his family, can anyone look down upon you if
you are in need at the present time? Isn’t it a fact that your dissatisfaction is
really with the present economic conditions and not with your husband? …
Catarina27
We can imagine the conversations between husband and wife about the making
of large expenditures—if they talk about the topic at all. The feelings of hurt,
betrayal, and helplessness would be difficult to talk about, not just for Lucy
Ambler and her husband, but also for other couples who feared that they might
find themselves in the same situation. We can easily imagine that talk about
high-priced expenditures might be verboten, along with the expenditures
themselves.
When such stories are rampant, and when unemployment is increasingly
long-term, any employer who offers a job to a laid-off worker will be regarded
as a sort of hero. But there is an offsetting tendency for the employer to worry
about hiring someone with little “money-making ability” and few other options.
As a Pennsylvania emergency relief board administrator said in 1936:
Another factor of importance in connection with the unemployment situation,
which, of course, is at the basis of relief, is the fact that many men and
women who were merely being “carried along” by their employers in the pre-