I see from the Weekend Sun's recent letters page N McKey ‘No work, no pay back in the day' (January 24) and Graeme Martin ‘Propping people up: dropping NZ down' (January 31) are taking some cheap shots at beneficiaries. I'm reminded of a farmer I briefly worked for in 1986, pruning kiwifruit.

He grumbled about people going on the unemployment benefit, then grumbled about the government removing his subsidies.

Then, because I was not trained as a horticulturalist, he laid me off, explaining he knew I was a good worker, and did not want to, but he had to.

And he never connected any of those points up.

I noticed the same thing later while I lived in Christchurch, looking for work there.
Business leaders were adamant the welfare subsidies destroyed initiative, then begged for taxpayer and ratepayer subsidies.

A business without initiative goes out of business, unless it is a roadside food stall or the like. And they never noticed the contradiction.

The very least one expects from people is that they think. But what can you do?

W Parish, Bellevue.