How Did the Great Depression Help Robert Moses Build?

Robert Caro says the Great Depression played a big role in what Robert Moses was able to build. When Moses needed architects, thousands of out-of-work architects lined up on Fifth Avenue, and he could hire them at very low wages. More than the pay, they were available because they had nothing else to do. He does not remember which project it was. It is in The Power Broker.

He could hire a great many people, and he could hire and fire them in a ruthless way that made the workmen work hard. If they did not keep up, he could fire them. It was the Depression, and they had no other jobs to go to. He used that. Dwarkesh Patel had asked whether those early achievements came from the government being able to compete with private employers for talent and labor, and Caro's answer is that this availability played a big role.