"present, and entirely different, circumstances"

Present circumstances are different, as is always the case - but "entirely different" is going far too far. We are in the middle of a depression comparable in many ways to the depression of the Thirties - with probably less prospect of coming out of it than back then. "The poor" may be less subject to total destitution, so far at least - but the rich are even richer. And the same people are in charge.