Sir, – Is it fair that workers on the minimum wage should see their wages cut by 22 per cent (Front page, February 13th)? Franklin D Roosevelt said that “social unrest and a deepening sense of unfairness are dangers to our natural life which we must minimize by rigorous methods.” There must be a fairer way to deal with the Greek crisis. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Stephen Collins (Opinion, February 11th) suggests that events in Greece should be an “eye-opener” for those tempted by the argument that “we should default on our debts and spurn the EU-IMF bailout”. The implication is that Greece has found itself in its present condition because it defaulted on its debts and spurned the EU-IMF bailout.
In fact, the present crisis could have been avoided if there had been a structured write-down of Greece’s unsustainable debt burden in 2009. The major EU states vetoed that option, and have forced Greece to adopt the most drastic austerity measures witnessed in any western country since the second World War, with every package driving the Greek economy further into the hole.
Greece is certainly an “eye-opener” – it has done everything that was required of it by Merkozy and the ECB; its people have seen their standard of living plummet, their public services decimated and their democracy trampled upon; yet there is no sign of the promised reward or recovery. Lessons for Ireland, indeed. – Yours, etc,