Sir, – Prof Ferdinand von Prondzynski (February 15th) is unduly dismissive of Vincent Browne's assertion that a more social democratic model would have been far better for this country if it had been embraced back in the 1960s when Fine Gael flirted with the idea (Opinion, February 12th).
He states that, like Browne, he would like to see a more just society yet he offers no views on an alternative. Does he really believe that, like many of our own neo-liberal apologists, our deeply dysfunctional economic model is the only game in town? Prof von Prondzynski also seems to confuse the social democratic economic model that was promulgated by Declan Costello in the 1960s and that Vincent Browne would like to see established, with a strictly communist model that, according to him, would result in a North Korean style tyranny “with human rights abuses and general poverty”. As an exercise in scaremongering, his remarks really take some beating.
Could I suggest the professor take a trip to any of the social democratic economies like Sweden, Norway, Finland or Denmark?
Instead of tyranny, poverty and human rights abuses, he will find wealthy, sustainable and progressive societies rooted in justice, fairness and equality. While nobody can claim that these countries are without their own problems, none of these “planned” and regulated economies are currently experiencing a lost decade that the “Anglo-Saxon” countries like ourselves are experiencing. None of these countries are experiencing the misery of unemployment and immigration and none of them have such marked levels of inequality that seem to be the hallmarks of the “neo-liberal” model. – Yours, etc,
STEPHEN DOHERTY,
Monkton Row,
Wicklow.