Sir, – The much-touted minimum pricing “cure” currently being bandied about for the over-reliance on alcohol problem is based on the false premise that if an individual can’t afford something he or she will forego purchasing it and thus cease using it.
That may well apply to the mature, responsible members of the population. Unfortunately, alcohol abusers, for numerous reasons, have little or no perception of following social norms of moderation and responsible behaviour, most likely due to a combination of cultural and genetic factors.
On a parallel note, the genesis of the current banking crisis the public finds itself mired in can be partly explained by the fact that we, as a society, demonstrated this very same lack of common sense restraint when far too many people committed themselves, abetted by the financial institutions, to huge mortgages without considering that the depth of the hole they were digging far exceeded the height of the ladder they required to climb their way out. – Yours, etc,
EDWARD D RAFFERTY
Mill Park,
Castlebridge,
Co Wexford.