This letter is in response to James Engle Jr’s op ed: Many people have the misconception that FDR’s New Deal helped the United States get out of the Great Depression. New Deal policies actually prolonged the Great Depression. FDR’s Tennessee Valley Authority did not benefit anyone. TVA states were poorer than non-TVA states. The 242 million Americans who did not live in the TVA were forced to subsidize the program and yet they would never receive any type of benefits from the TVA.

During the Great Depression FDR ordered millions of acres of crops destroyed. The New Deal penalized farmers if they grew too much acreage and made farmers set their prices by using price controls. This is simply insane economic policy.

Many people credit FDR’s work programs as successful. Research has found otherwise. For example, in 1934 after a year and a half of work programs the unemployment rate was still at 22 percent. FDR also used the WPA money to help out democratic cantidates, not the American people.

Many of FDR’s bad New Deal policies are still around today. Farmers still receive subsidies, Social Security needs major reform, and the TVA is inefficient compared to private utility companies. We as Americans must learn from past mistakes so we can prevent such tragedies as the New Deal. If you want to become more informed about FDR’s New Deal fallacies, then I would suggest you read FDR’s Folly by Jim Powell.

Joel Peyton

745-3071

Corbin, KY

Junior