A chara, – We should not be surprised at the scenes of mayhem in London and other British cities.
After 30 years of Thatcherite monetarist policies supported by a self-serving narrative from the right-wing media we see the results in a disaffected, dysfunctional, disconnected generation of thugs.
As we pursue similar policies of cut-backs in public services here, ranging from cutting recruitment to the gardaí, to larger classroom numbers and subsidies to community services in order to pay for private debts, will we too be surprised when we reap the whirlwind of disaffection in our cities? And who will pay again? The average citizen and the owners of small businesses.
We must be mad. – Is mise,
Sir, – If politicians are surprised at the mass eruption of trouble in the UK it proves how out of touch they are with society. Our leaders do not seem to understand the resentment and anger they have created by the actions they have taken attempting to resolve their economic mess.
Society is divided. There are those who did well in the boom times and profited from their greed. Many of them created the current mess. Those same people advocate solving their problem by cutting costs and increasing the burden of taxes on the other sections of society.
Others in society worked and managed to just about get by in the so-called good times; they were not greedy. They are now experiencing reduced incomes, higher taxes, worsening public services and redundancy. The full impact of the Cameron/Osborne/Clegg actions have not as yet been felt: large numbers of civil servants, police, armed forces and others will be on the dole queue within 12 months. Here the feeling of resentment is very high, but middle England does not know how to express itself.
The third section of society is made up of those who never had anything in the boom years, and now their prospect of getting out of the trench is even more unlikely.
I do not understand the worldwide economic policy of retrenchment. Cutting costs by creating unemployment reduces the lifeline that keeps our world going: that is the circulation of money. We need to increase activity by getting people back to work, to create jobs so they spend money on goods that others are employed to make and to sell. That way we increase tax revenue from VAT, income and corporation tax and reduce the cost of social welfare. Constantly cutting costs and increasing taxes on the average worker will only end in a downwards spiral and further divide society.
The principal objective of most managers running businesses is to constantly look for ways to increase revenues. The control of cost and margins in important, but failure to increase sales usually ends in disaster.
I am very surprised that there has as yet not been more release of the pent-up anger across Europe. – Yours, etc,