Sir, – In his assessment of Fine Gael's experiment with the "Just Society", Vincent Browne (Opinion, February 12th) suggests the following: that "full-scale economic planning, not just of the public sector but of the private economy", banks brought under government control, direct public investment in jobs and price control (inter alia) would if implemented in the 1960s "have spared us much of the misery caused by the recent crisis".
Like Vincent Browne, I am interested in how we can create a fairer society. But a fairer society is of no particular benefit if is not economically successful, because then all it does is to impose a more equal misery. It is hard to avoid the truth that every country that has implemented the policies mentioned above has ended up as a tyranny of sorts, with human rights abuses and general poverty. There is little or no evidence that a planned economy, or elaborate statism, solves any problems at all. Contemplating this retro version of socialism as a solution is a tad scary.
There is every reason to work for a society in which rational decisions are taken, democratic principles upheld, and all citizens valued. But this is not the way to achieve that. Or really, anything.– Yours, etc,
Prof FERDINAND
von PRONDZYNSKI,
Tarves,
Aberdeenshire,
Scotland.