Capitalism and communism

Tom White (Letters, July 2) blames capitalism for climate change and in some respects he’s right, the machines that are polluting our atmosphere could never have been invented under the constraints of a communist system.

But they have done more to alleviate the poverty and drudgery than could ever have been achieved with Marxist ideology.

The challenge now is to achieve the same or better productivity with a non-polluting technology. This will almost certainly be achieved only under the flexibility of the capitalist system. Chris Bowen, Lower Hutt Tom White acknowledges the ‘‘actions of its most pathological adherents’’ when evaluating Marxism, while criticising Karl du Fresne’s opinion.

Nevertheless, it is disingenuous of White to ignore the details of those ‘‘pathological actions’’. The plight of millions of Marxist communism’s genocide victims is chilling. That is precisely why communism is a failed and abject philosophy, not something to be revered.

It would be as well to reflect on poverty and subjugation in ‘‘non-capitalist’’ governments in Russia, China, Cambodia, Vietnam, North Korea, Myanmar, Cuba, and various atrocious regimes in Africa. Better dead than red, I reckon.

White has few free hits at capitalism, but I would dearly like to know how the climate on this planet got on before capitalism wrought its foul ways on us, and how is it that many farmers in communist countries had dairy cows?

Your writers fear that there is no balanced criticism of capitalism, but this paper contains frequent attacks on farming, forestry, energy and mining, all industries requiring capital and that keep this country afloat, making it a place where people can express ideas without fear of imprisonment or death; as yet anyway. Allen Heath, Woburn