Free enterprise

Press, 15 August 1980, Page 12

Free enterprise

Sir, — M. Creel (August 5) might dispute Hank Goorn’s-competence on the “bureaucratic nature” and “elitist class” of Soviet

society, but some Christchurch residents can offer him “first-hand knowledge or experience of the Soviet system.” How I wish M. Creel could have the stifling experience of the bureaucratic rigmarole that oppresses daily life in Russia for two or three years, or decades. Elitism is alive and well in Russia. Perhaps Brezhnev’s Zil is State property, but what about the many sports cars he keeps in Zhukovka and Zavidovo? I remember photographs in Moscow of Brezhnev’s Mercury, Maserati, Rolls, and his golf cart. What about the private tennis courts and swimming pools I saw in Peredelkino and Uspenskoye? Or the Red Army general, buying two dozen quarts of imported Scotch for less than $3 a bottle, in front of me at a Moscow elitist shop. — Yours, etc., RAYMOND OPPENHEIM.

August 12, 1980. Sir, — Frank A. Smith’s optimistic, long-term answer (August 13) to my questions is both useful and very ancient. Aristotle said that work was for leisure, wherein man achieved his true state. Because they appraised leisure rather than work as superior, the Greeks gave us Olympic sport, drama, philosophy, and the bases of modem science and mathematics. But any beneficial ‘net result’ of industrial revolution accruing today, has a debit of suffering and socio-political trauma that threatens the survival of civilisation, society, and the race itself. Even in Christchurch, the employment structure does not want thousands for whom it did once have a place. These range from yacht and prestigious English car-owning managers and accountants, to hosts of young fresh from school. By the mid 80s, there could be over 300,000 such in the country. In the immediate situation, what legitimate livelihood channels is free enterprise to offer the people it does not need in production? — Yours, etc., JOHN B. GALLAGHER. August 14, 1980.