A Jacobin post on Instagram^1 reminded me of this 1930s Bertand Russel writing
... The money spent by the Duke in this merry-making was obtained by taxing grain so heavily that bread was at famine prices, and vast numbers of the poor died of hunger.
A hundred years ago, in a society now extinct, the point of view which puts charity above independence now seems to us grotesque. But in newer forms it still survives and is still politically powerful...
russell-j.com/CHARITY.HTM
