Madam, - With the recent death of J.K. Galbraith, whose life and work were so well summarised in your edition of May 6th, it is timely to reflect on the type of society that Ireland has become and whether we want it to continue developing in the same direction.
Galbraith's warnings of "private wealth and public squalor" in the affluent society are all too apposite to the current Irish socio-economic picture.
The level of public squalor may be less evident here than it was, and probably still is, in the America of Galbraith. However, with the enormous increase in private wealth since the birth of the Celtic Tiger, there has been a concomitant increase in the level of dysfunction in housing, public transport and health services and a rise in crime.
These trends, if not addressed through proper planning and an ideological commitment to put people rather than wealth at the top of the agenda, will inevitably lead to further polarisation of the type described by Galbraith.
If I may single out one current Government proposal that would worsen polarisation, it is Minister for Health Mary Harney's plan to build private hospitals in the grounds of public hospitals - a proposal which I am pleased to note was roundly rejected by the Irish Medical Organisation. - Yours, etc,
CHRISTOPHER HONE, Dublin 22.