Jason van Tol, Myocum
Charles MacFarland’s letter (17 June) responding to Mandy’s Soapbox altogether missed the point she was making. While he provides what he thinks would have been a better response, that was not the one given.
When people do things primarily to make money, we loathe and distrust such people because that makes them susceptible to unscrupulous behaviour.
Think about it: which doctor would you rather be treated by? One who studied medicine to make money and chose to work in a private clinic (which is by nature profit oriented), or one who studied medicine because she loved helping people and chose to work in a public clinic?
Environment, other species, other people’s amenity or even their lives – when all must subordinate themselves and succumb to profiteering, we have good reason for concern, disgust, or anger, just as Mandy expressed.
Unfortunately, our entire global economic system is based on such motivation, which is why the world is becoming the sort of hostile place that it is. An excellent account of the rise of the very mentality being described here is given by Karl Polanyi in his classic work The Great Transformation.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
