In the US in 1917: unemployment was about 4%. The average wage was 24 cents an hour. A loaf of bread cost 4 cent....a pound of potato's cost 7 cent...a quart of milk could be delivered to your house for 11 cent...a pound of steak was 29 cent...A ride in a trolley car from New York City to Boston was only 5 cents.

1917 was the last year that the rural population in the US outnumbered the urban. ( Now, rural America is only about 1-2% of the pop.)