Winston Churchill always called World War 2 the “unnecessary war”, for the obvious reason that Hitler announced his intentions early on, and acted on them–in flagrant violation of the Treaty of Versailles–not once, but repeatedly.
The Depression of the 1930’s was likewise unncessary. Leaving aside the willfulness of the economic crimes committed by the Federal Reserve–they plainly deserve the blame for starting it, and in some measure for continuing–FDR and Hoover manifestly pursued counter-productive policies. In conditions of price deflation and business stress, they insisted on fixed, nationally determined wages for those workers who could get jobs. In conditions of deflation, this amounted to forced wage increases, which of course saddles business owners with greatly added costs, which meant they either went out of business, laid people off, or simply refused to hire more. France has this problem today. Under existing laws, their chronic unemployment will NEVER ease.
Maybe the slogan of the Tea Party should be “Economics education NOW”: “What do we want? FACTS. When do we want them. NOW.”