Madam, – John Cooney’s suggestion (May 5th) that the unemployed take to cleaning the streets, presumably in return for social welfare, sounds like a punitive measure, if not the instigation of a culture of punishment by manual labour. Why not just build a workhouse? What most unemployed people need is a decent, stable, relatively well-paid job.
What many societies require are citizens who do not want only to pollute their living environment.
A compulsory volunteering force, where all citizens would be called on to provide a day of service, on a rotating basis, would be far more palatable in a socially-progresssive society; almost as palatable as asking some retired and/or unemployed bankers to clean up the detritus. – Yours, etc,