CLLR McKeon’s thoughtful letter deserves a proper response, but to spare the poor readers let it be the last!

Spreading the wealth is a noble aspiration but history has taught us that when carried out aggressively it usually ends up spreading poverty.

Poverty is no mystery to mankind most of the world’s population were born into it. The miracle has been the explosion of wealth in the last 175 years created by the development of the market economy and the belief articulated by Jefferson that people are born free and with individual rights.

In short people have fought for protection against over bearing governments that seek to garner too much power and take on too much responsibility, big government will always and inevitably put power and influence into the hands of the few, whose aims are not always as noble as those articulated by Cllr McKeon.

Europe has not as Cllr McKeon states been living under a ‘neo liberal creed’, whilst countries in Asia have been throwing off Socialism with wild abandon and grasping the concept of markets, Europe has been living the Social Democratic dream of higher taxes, inflexible labour markets and an ever growing dependency on the State.

Unsurprisingly Asia is, economically speaking, wiping the floor with us, in fact you could say if your perspective is global, ‘poor’ Asia is getting richer and ‘rich’ Europe is getting poorer and I suppose to that end European Social Democracy has played its part in making the world a more equal place. Cllr Martyn Cox Westhoughton North and Chew Moor