Free enterprise
Sir, — The “user pays” principle cuts both ways. The country benefits from the education and health of its citizens, so should it not help pay? The welfare state is based on utility as well as compassion. Admitted minor faults in the system, • some unavoidable, are no excuse for cutting worth-while services. Even the regulations Mr Quigley condemns (“The Press,” May 2) are not all bad; many’ even protect us, although at the expense of quick profits, and preserve the way of life Mr Quigley praises but which his industrialised version of “economic survival” would destroy. A welfare state is compatible with balanced books. The “user pays” principle is applied strangely selectively. Will the Government ’stop selling electricity at a loss to foreign companies, and stop the Forest Service running at a loss for the benefit of companies destroying our native forests at our own expense? Let the Government pick on someone its own size. — Yours, etc., D. J. ROUND. May 6, 1980.
Sir, — Terry Heffernan (May 5) has completely missed the point: there are two types of monopolies, natural and enforced. In free enterprise, a businessman has to serve the consumer, producing the best goods at the best price to gain profit (i.e. his • wages). A free enterprise monopoly is only possible by being so efficient and getting prices so low that no-one can compete. And what is wrong with that? Everyone benefits. And if the prices go up. competition jumps in and
slashes . them . down again. Thus, people, Work hard,, production and morale are high, prices, low, wages good. The other type of monopoly, characteristic of socialist' countries, is where the .government', or businessmen influencing the . government, eliminate competition by tariffs, . licensing, protection, and other Such’ controls; This keeps prices high (although the illusion of low prices may be created by taxpayer subsidies), production and morale low, and everyone except the monopolists lose. — Yours, etc., FRANK A. SMITH. May 6, 1980.
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Press, 8 May 1980, Page 20
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324Free enterprise Press, 8 May 1980, Page 20
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