Sir, – The economic metrics used by our elected representatives present a distorted picture of a society pressurised to spend on that which it does not need and does not necessarily have a social dividend.
We have allowed successive governments abdicate their social obligations to the market, despite plenty of evidence demonstrating that the provision of social services is not compatible with free-market economics.
So we now have a society in which exclusion of the working poor is becoming normalised in a similar fashion to the marginalising of the massive underclass which exists in the US.
Metrics such as GDP and employment levels mean nothing to those living from payday to payday with little security. The electorate needs to wake up from its consumerist stupor and look to their representatives to take back responsibility for social provision.
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Taxpayers should question systems of governance which allow costs of capital projects to run out of control over short periods and systems of work in our public sector which are not fit for purpose.
We have it within our capabilities to create a fair and functioning society but need to become engaged. – Yours, etc,
BARRY WALSH,
Blackrock,
Cork.