IN response to Deborah Schlemer's letter of October 10.

She has to be given full marks for trying, but, Deborah, your first paragraph lets you down badly. Without elaborating, how can you espouse the merits of a country that has more than 32 million people out of work, mainly made up of those with an ethnic background?

I would suggest you dig out a back issue of the New York Times, September 29, 2002, and read the article by one of your own countrymen, John W Fountain, titled "In Trenches of a War on Unyielding Poverty".

Then come back with a justifiable argument in explanation for the sorry state of affairs in your so-called land of equal opportunity and fairness.

Derrick Somerfield

Eyre Street, Buninyong

Victoria, Australia