Money Idolatry

Part of the reason for the Irish potato Famine of 1845 and beyond, is that the The British Aristocracy and some rich Irish thought that the peasants were morally inferior because the Irish potato farmer was poor.  They were considered weak and indolent. So why give them "free food?" Money and its accumulation was a sign of virtue in that world.  See the Protestant Reformation for more.  To be poor was a sin.  Money becomes an idol when it measures the worth of a person.  In the gospel, riches seem to be more of an impediment to salvation.  Easier for a camel to fit through a pin hole than the rich to be saved.  Moreover, a main purpose of colonialism, and Ireland was really treated as a colony of Britain, is for the colony to supply stuff, raw materials or goods, for the colonizer.  The prosperity of the worker in the colony was of no interest to the power.  The Irish were to provide cheap food to feed the Brits.  The American colonies rebelled.  The southern colonies were a bit tepid about rebellion, as they had slaves to pick the raw product, but no factories to manufacture much of anything.  It was another use of the poor to supply the wealth of the rich.  British food and livestock were on Irish soil.  Our oil is under Arab sand.