Orwell observed, sales of what he called “cheap luxuries” had surged. “The peculiar evil is this,” he wrote. “A millionaire may enjoy breakfasting off orange juice and Ryvita biscuits; an unemployed man doesn’t….When you are unemployed, which is to say when you are underfed, harassed, bored and miserable, you don’t want to eat dull wholesome food. You want something a little bit ‘tasty.’ There is always some cheaply pleasant thing to tempt you.” This observation alone may be enough to explain the resiliency of the sugar industry, regardless of how hard the times, and of the “depression-proof”
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