Letter: Greedy bastards

Greedy bastards

Sir: Like other union leaders, John Edmonds attacks the consequences of market economics, but not the system ("Fury over `greedy bosses' attack", 15 September). A company director taking a pounds 50,000 raise while other employees get a few hundred is indeed a "greedy bastard", but establishing, encouraging and rewarding greedy bastards is the fundamental purpose of capitalism.

Mr Edmonds also attacked higher unemployment being used to curb inflation, but production for profit necessitates wage restraint to keep the business competitive in a global market. To counteract rising pay, joblessness must now increase by several hundred thousand to a "natural rate" that enables employers to threaten uppity workers. The training-up of lone parents and others to become part of this reserve army is yet another unavoidable capitalist consequence that union chiefs refuse to accept because it exposes the underlying futility of collective bargaining.

MAX HESS

Folkestone, Kent