Sir, – Paul Krugman’s column on the recent cuts in food stamps for the most vulnerable in the US (Business Opinion, July 16th) provides a useful insight into how the elite in that country and elsewhere in the West view the purpose of government. It seems that the original purpose of democratic government, as espoused by Lincoln, as being of the people, by the people, for the people, has been changed to being a guardian of the elite and their jealously held lifestyles.
We have seen global finance bailed out at the expense of tax payers, military spending increased at the expense of social supports and now corporate farm subsidies protected at the expense of food stamps for the poor. Despite this, we are fed a message that to interfere with the workings of global capital is an affront to freedom while countless citizens lie trapped in a life of penury to prop it up.
Once upon a time freedom was about the ability of all citizens to have equal opportunity to meet their potential, facilitated by well-funded and accessible public health and education. Now it is about the freedom of the few to accumulate more wealth through increasing the debt burden on the remainder and reducing the ability of government to support society. – Yours, etc,
BARRY WALSH,
Linden Avenue,
Blackrock, Cork.