The Sept. 13 front-page article “Hurricane laid bare Bahamas inequality” told a story well worth remembering, for it is one that reflects the often ignored, or defensively hidden, essence of economic life in much of the modern world. What the article referred to as an “open secret” — that wealthy visitors to the paradise of Baker’s Bay in the Bahamas depended critically on the poor residents they habitually exploited for comfort and charm — reminded me of something W.E.B. Du Bois wrote in 1953. “But today I see more clearly than yesterday,” noted Du Bois, “that back of the problem of race and color, lies a greater problem which both obscures and implements it: and that is the fact that so many civilized persons are willing to live in comfort even if the price of this is poverty, ignorance, and disease of the majority of their fellowmen.”