Counting the true costs of Truss’s economic credo

George Monbiot calls for inspiring alternatives to the current disastrous ideology (Opinion, 23 September). A good place to start might be to finally dispel the convenient myth that amassing a lot of money is the same as creating wealth. To “make” lots of money basically involves taking bits of money from lots of other people, by fair means or foul.

Wealth, on the other hand, is “created” by using the Earth’s resources, combined with leveraging the differences in socioeconomic expectations between social groups/countries.

Both those things are becoming increasingly problematic, with the true social and environmental costs becoming impossible to ignore. Responsibility to society must go hand in hand with the accumulation of financial riches. So-called wealth creation should be called out for what it is, not lauded and encouraged. Jeremy Brettingham North Creake, England, UK

Our dance with growth economics is becoming ever more deadly, because it exacerbates the three biggest dangers to our ecosystems: population, affluence and technology. Our education system is part of the powerful propaganda machine that persuades parents that the way to survive is to fit in, and to earn money; in fact, what is really needed are healthy ecosystems. Barbara Williams Long Hanborough, England, UK

So, Liz Truss is wheeling out the discredited Thatcherite trickle-down theory of economics. This should rather be known as the truckle-down theory, which assumes that the rest of us will tamely accept policies destined to increase the wealth gap. As such, this theory has at least one virtue: it does seem to work.

Damian Grant Villeneuve d’Ascq, France