Judging people by old standards

I have to take issue with two letterwriters complaining about how 'Many people don't live within their means' and 'Bad parenting is often to blame'.

These are both typical examples of 'punching down': having a go at those less fortunate than themselves. Why assume that young, struggling individuals and families don't know how to look after themselves properly and that they are spoilt because they need stuff to survive in the modern world which these people didn't have?

I note that one of these writers is 80 and the other is 89. I am 69 so not far short but I grew up in a time when we had everything incredibly easy. Education was free. Many families could afford a house and to feed their family, and possibly the odd holiday, on one

salary alone.

We had a fully functioning NHS (which included eye care, hearing, dentistry, etc). We knew about pollution and its threat to the climate and the environment - the hole in the ozone layer was fixed and we assumed that things would get better. We were becoming aware of the dangers of plastics and the overuse of timber leading to habitat loss for many wildlife species.

Our public services were just that, and certainly better maintained than they are now with sewage pumped into rivers and sea on a regular basis.

We also understood, I think, about inequality; I was a secondwave feminist and knew that my struggle for equality would not be valid unless it was also a fight for equality for all marginalised folk. Please, think carefully about what you assume. Look up at the enormous profits being made in privatised industries (on which we rely for clean water, electricity, gas - not to mention our food). The differential between what an employee and their bosses took home in the 60s was relatively small; now it is vast. No one should be a billionaire while those around them starve.

Mary Kerr

Library picture ’Litter wardens cannot be in every lane or at every farm gate to catch fly-tippers’