“With the Russians battered but still holding the field, Allied troops now squarely rested, said Britain’s Lord Beaverbrook, on the ‘immense possibilities of American industry.’… Even in its weakened Depression state, the American economy was a fearsome, if slumbering, behemoth. In 1938… national income in the United States was nevertheless nearly double the combined national incomes of Germany, Japan, and Italy. In that same Depression year, American steel output dwarfed Germany’s and American coal miners hauled up… almost twice the tonnage of their German counterparts… Vast reservoirs of physical productive capacity also lay unused, including factories, heavy construction equipment, machine tool stocks… and railcars.” Source: David M. Kennedy, historian, The American People in World War II: Freedom from Fear, Part Two, 2000

Which of the following groups benefited most from America’s response to the conditions described by Kennedy in this passage?

A) Women
B) Japanese Americans
C) Consumers
D) Young men