In a letter to the Westmeath Examiner on 19 June, one reader says that on 24 September everyone in Ireland whose means allow – as well as those abroad of Irish extraction – should spend €100 to support the Irish economy. What a bizarre suggestion!
Ireland has been plunged into debt largely as a result of such profligate spending under the illusion of prosperity and on the basis of easy credit and erratic policies of a Government having no proper comprehension, it would seem, of basic economic principles.
The fundamental problem for the State – and increasingly for a very great many individuals – is that the money is just not there to spend, other than for the absolute essentials.
According to a recent survey, one-third of Irish mortgage holders live with the constant fear of losing their homes due to difficulties in making repayments. Many of these people were simply no longer required as employees in what must be categorised not as a recession but as a full-blown depression.
The collapse of the Irish economy has not occurred through the fault of the Irish people, be they working class or middle class, and they should not be expected to carry the burden for the calculated greed of an elite group dedicated solely to their own interests.
Meanwhile, charity work, though highly commendable and carried out by the most unselfish people giving so unsparingly of their time, will nevertheless fail to establish recovery in an economy downgraded through processes taking no consideration into ethical or moral considerations or concern for, if you like, the common man and woman.
A more enlightened approach would seek to abandon the worst aspects of globalisation by giving a fairer deal to those who Fritz Fanon described as “the wretched of the earth”, and put greater emphasis on social cohesion, cooperation and multilateralism.
John Kelly
Mullingar, Co Westmeath
