Contrary to what John Frary says in regard to “progressives” (column, “Bernie Sanders: Vermont’s gift to America,” May 31), I might point out that progressives agree that it was not over-production that brought on the Great Depression. What brought it on was the income disparity, equivalent to today’s but with no safety net, hence the bread lines. The problem was that the employees could not afford the products they were producing.

Just think, if all those people we see using EBT cards were forced to stand in bread lines, how long would they be? If there were no unemployment compensation, how long would the lines be? Today, unemployment and poverty are mostly invisible because of these government programs.

They are mostly visible when we see someone using an EBT card to buy candy or other items we object to, instead of standing in line for a hand out.

Conservatives like to disparage government, reduce funding of its programs then use the inadequacy of those programs as evidence that government does not work, a self-fulfilling prophesy if ever there was one.

Capitalists like to quote Henry Ford as saying, “Make the best quality goods possible at the lowest cost possible,” while leaving out the rest of the quote, “paying the highest wages possible.” When he gave his workers $5 for an eight-hour day, an “economic crime” according to the Wall Street Journal at the time, he helped attract better quality and more loyal workers and customers. He understood that, in a capitalist system, the money trickles up not down.

Charles Robertson

Palermo