Madam, – There seems to be a growing consensus that our economic difficulties present us with a unique opportunity to make fundamental changes in the way we govern ourselves and to articulate the sort of society we wish to become.
Like many areas of change, the only people we can really change are ourselves, and until the concept of serving the community, whether as a politician, doctor, barrister, accountant, banker, public servant, etc, carries its own reward and does not imply a remuneration and pension 20 or 30 times that of the lowest paid, then we are never going to recreate a sense of equity and ownership in this society.
This was a distinguishing mark of the founders of this State and many of the professional classes up to the 1950s. A commitment from any political party to put a ceiling on the relationship between the lowest and highest paid in our society, and to increase tax rates to ensure its implementation would give the electorate a real choice in the next election. – Yours, etc,