Ryan's "Irish Problem": his philosophy is the same one that hurt his forefathers in the Great Famine

[highplainsdem]

From popular historian and science writer John Kelly, writing for the Daily Beast. Kelly's book on the Great Famine will be published next week. He'll probably be doing a book tour and lots of media appearances, and since he took the time to write this piece for the Daily Beast, it's likely this comparison with Paul Ryan's economic philosophy will be brought up :

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/18/paul-ryan-s-irish-problem.html

Paul Ryan and his siblings are proud of their Irish famine-to-fortune history. They trace their paternal lineage to Ryan’s great-great grandfather, James Ryan, who fled the famine in Ireland for America in 1851, just after the worst of the catastrophe was over. But there’s something wrong with that scenario, and it is this: Ryan’s high-profile economic philosophy is the very same one that hurt, not helped, his forebears during the famine—and hurt them badly.

The Irish famine, widely regarded as the worst natural disaster of the 19th century, began when, between 1845 and 1850, repeated crop failures reduced the population of Ireland by a third. But crop failure wasn’t what caused the worst of it: a government economic philosophy called “Moralism” and speeches made in Parliament that are almost word-for-word like Ryan’s own speeches about his Republican budget are what made the famine catastrophic, causing needless deaths.

Charles Trevelyan, the British official who oversaw famine relief, was so intent on rooting out the “cankerworm of government dependency” from the character of hungry peasants that he ordered relief food be sold rather than given away. That decision was the single-most devastating one, increasing famine deaths multifold—and unnecessarily.

-snip-

Back in mid-19th century Parliament, Trevelyan wasn’t alone, just as Ryan and Romney aren’t now. Sir Randoph Routh, the head of the Irish Relief Commission, was such a fervent crusader for the free market that not even mass starvation and mass death failed to shake his belief. When a starving delegation from famine-struck County Mayo visited Routh’s office, he presented his guests not with food— but instead with a copy of Edmund Burke’s pamphlet Details on Scarcity, in which Burke explains how market forces deliver food more efficiently than the government. In Routh’s enthusiastic gifting of Burke’s book are shades of Ryan’s fervent profferings, for years, of the works of Ayn Rand. (To be fair, Ryan didn’t give copies of Atlas Shrugged to any starving peasants.)

-snip-

[Historic NY]

1. Ryan is a lace curtain Irish, they looked down on the shanty Irish..

in fact most never offered them a hand up or a hand out, its was against their pretenses.

[Tgmr55]

2. Famine Facts

There was NO food shortage in Ireland during the famine, the potato crop failed, all other crops and livestock were fine. It was the land owners (those who stole Irish land from the Irish) Who demanded rent, so the tenants turned over the other crops and livestock to the land lords and their agents. That is why the Irish starved, as citizens of Great Britain they were allowed to starve through
No fault of their own.

[madinmaryland]

3. Welcome to DU...

Though you have been here longer than I have been.

[Tgmr55]

5. Thanks!

I call opposition to lies, damn lies and republicans, "fighting the forces of evil"

[pnwmom]

6. True. There was plenty of food being produced in Ireland, but the landowners made sure

it was shipped out of the country, where it would command higher prices. Unchecked free market forces caused the death of millions.

[AnnieBW]

4. The more things change

The more they stay the same. Only now, it's gonna be corn, not potatoes.