bad parenting........................

 

     However, government's responsibility for the depression was not recognized—either then or now.  Instead, the depression was widely interpreted as a failure of free market capitalism.  That myth led the public to join the intellectuals in a changed view of the relative responsibilities of individuals and government.  Emphasis on the responsibility of the individual for his own fate was replaced by emphasis on the individual as a pawn buffeted by forces beyond his control.  The view that government's role is to serve as an umpire to prevent individuals from coercing one another was replaced by the view that government's role is to serve as a parent charged with the duty of coercing some to aid others.

-Milton & Rose Friedman, Free To Choose: A Personal Statement