Madam, - Political philosophy lecturer Stephen J. Costello (March 9th) sternly warns us lesser mortals that the PDs' penchant for giving priority to the economy is a political ideology that is "repugnant to socialists, social democrats and classic conservatives". Giving priority to the economy means, of course, allowing people the freedom to pursue wealth within the law.
As such, there can be no greater accolade than being repugnant to socialists, the political heirs to Marx, Lenin and Mao, whose state-controlled redistributive ideology in the past century killed 100 million people, impoverished many more and wrecked vast swathes of the environment.
In so far as social democracy seeks a gradual transition from capitalism to socialism, albeit by democratic means, it too is hardly an ideology to be proud of. Its adherents' repugnance is thus to be welcomed.
As for classic conservatives, with their predominant goal of preserving the status quo, warts and all, any change is repugnant to them, even when it improves the lot of the people.
"Surely people come before profit in any civilised and humane society," concludes Dr Costello. But surely this translates into poverty (uncivilised and inhumane) coming before profit, because that's what you get when you constrain profit. Do we have to re-live the 20th century to relearn that? And anyway, what's actually wrong with law-abiding people creating wealth? Even political philosophy lecturers do that. - Yours, etc,
TONY ALLWRIGHT, Killiney, Co Dublin.