Madam, – The series of articles published by The Irish Timesunder the above title is timely and thought-provoking, but the contribution from Prof Richard Tol (January 28th) was most disappointing in so many respects. In the interests of brevity I will confine myself to one remark in his piece: "Protecting the vulnerable would be nice, but protecting those that [sic] will get us out of this mess is paramount".
While the juxtaposing of purported concern for the vulnerable with real concern for those whom he considers will lead us to recovery is interesting, the subordination of the needs of the former to the latter is revealing and shameful.
– Yours, etc,
Madam, – Richard Tol employs some wonderfully perverse logic when he writes that “the lower-paid benefit disproportionally [sic] from deflation” in regard to civil service wage cuts.
How remarkably obtuse of those low earners not to have realised how favourable the current crisis is for them and that the more their wages are cut the more benefit they will gain as the economy shrinks.
Yet Dr Tol simultaneously makes a case for salary differentials favouring enhanced incomes for those with promotional ambitions; presumably they fail to appreciate that a higher salary will actually be bad for them.
Also, his arguments for the privatisation of the commercial semi-state companies blithely ignores the current banking debacle and the obligations laid on the ordinary taxpayer to “rescue” these delinquent institutions by effectively nationalising them.
– Yours, etc,
Madam, – The cure for a recession is simple in theory, though very difficult to apply in practice: to take from the rich and give to the poor.
Poor people spend their money quickly to satisfy their immediate needs, whereas rich people take time to consider. By this readjustment a healthy run of trade is promoted.
The rich need not feel ill-used. Money has a natural tendency to flow upwards, they will soon have recovered all or most of their contributions.
– Yours, etc,
Madam, – As a survivor of the recession of the 1980s, and given the almost universal admiration for the new US president, I feel it is time to revive an idea that was floating around then as a solution to our current woes.
Step 1: Declare war on America. Step 2: Surrender immediately. Step 3: Become the 51st state of the union and come under the protection and direction of our very own Barack Obama from Moneygall. All those in favour say: “Yes we can!”
– Yours, etc,