Would it not be better if they spent more money on wholesome things
like oranges and wholemeal bread or if they even, like the
writer of the letter to the New Statesman, saved on fuel and
ate their carrots raw? Yes, it would, but the point is that
no ordinary human being is ever going to do such a thing.
The ordinary human being would sooner starve than live on
brown bread and raw carrots. And the peculiar evil is this,
that the less money you have, the less inclined you feel to
spend it on wholesome food. A millionaire may enjoy breakfasting off orange juice and Ryvita biscuits; an unemployed
man doesn’t. When you are unemployed,
which is to say when you are underfed, harassed, bored,
and miserable, you don’t want to eat dull wholesome food.
You want something a little bit ’tasty’. There is always some
cheaply pleasant thing to tempt you. Let’s have three pennorth of chips! Run out and buy us a twopenny ice-cream!
Put the kettle on and we’ll all have a nice cup of tea! That
is how your mind works when you are at the P.A.C. level.
White bread-and-marg and sugared tea don’t nourish you to
any extent, but they are nicer (at least most people think so)
than brown bread-and-dripping and cold water. Unemployment is an endless misery that has got to be constantly palliated, and especially with tea, the English-man’s opium. A cup of tea or even an aspirin is much better as a temporary
stimulant than a crust of brown bread.