The retreat from work
Sir: You express thankfulness (29 July) that We no longer have the lash of poverty to drive people to work. Yet the carrot works only when the donkey is hungry; the stick is always persuasive.
A system that hands out money on demand to those who will not work and which, under the ultimate threat of imprisonment, extracts from those who do work part of their earned incomes to keep the idle in moderate comfort is bound to fail eventually. When we are all on social security, will the EEC foot the bills?
An acquaintance of mine has a small shop and employed two 'Saturday' girls. These young ladies have announced that they will no longer be working at all. They have now left school and are signing on for social security.
I am no admirer of trade unions, but the members would be quite justified in demanding full social security benefits according to individual circumstances just to be on a payroll. They have just as much right to really unearned tax-free income as anyone else. After which, they could start negotiating rates of pay for actually working. The most outrageous differential of all is that between working and not working; it is virtually non-existent.
C. W. Bond 88 Lower Bristol Road, Weston-super-Mare, Avon
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