To be fair, back then it was relatively easy for anyone intelligent enough to be able to abuse any of that to have a well paying 'white collar' job with things like full health benefits, a pension, and more than sufficient income to support an entirely family SOLO. They even owned houses!

When your life is set like that why risk trying to defraud someone a the cost of a nice suit when that's something that can be done legally and written off as a business expense on taxes?