As a counter-anecdote, my grandmother is still alive: she was born in 1918. She just voted for Trump, to give you an idea of where she stands politically. She coped with it by scrimping and saving every penny. She literally washes saran wrap to reuse it, despite having enough pension these days to get by. She saves grocery-store bags. She eats every crumb on her plate. She never wastes leftovers, ever. She went to college at 40 years old, which was not thought of highly in her time, and had a 20-year career as a schoolteacher. She still corresponds with some past students, who are her last living friends.

My grandfather's college fund (to be a dentist) was wiped out, the bank closed. He worked at a GE factory his whole life, work that I will say was far beneath his potential. He never complained. He once traded his easy job on the line for a much harder one, where he had to lift each engine block twice to inspect some fiddly bit on it. He traded to get a 5-cent raise. If you offered my grandfather a government subsidy, he might not have been able to conceal his contempt.

I don't think the decisions of any of the individuals we've mentioned are great indicators of what's correct or incorrect, but the depression didn't influence everyone the same way.