Sir, – As a boy, some working-class lore was passed down to me: wages were to put a roof over your head, food in your belly, clothes on your back and coal on the fire and, if you had anything left over, you could have a pint at the weekend in the pub. The important message being that for the household budget, the essential, needful expenses take precedence over optional indulgences.
If world economic growth has to slow considerably for the sake of the planet and our own survival upon it, as some ecologists are suggesting, we will have to find new equitable ways of living and working together besides redistribution of wealth.
One such way would be to focus on economic activity that should matter most to people and results in a real improvement in their living conditions, and to downgrade discretionary superfluous production and pastimes. – Yours, etc,
GEOFF NAYLOR,
Winchester,
Hampshire,
England.