Sir, – In response to your “buy Irish” call (September 7th), it is worth remembering that other nations can practise the same kind of unofficial tariffing. The end result of such economic nationalism, of course, would be similar to that of the official kind: beggar thy neighbour economics. Paradoxically, the more successful the move towards buying Irish, the more likely it is that it will result in this kind of backlash.
Aside from this direct kind of impact, a failure to force competition hurts economic growth in its purest form: through technological innovation. It is the latter which make things cheaper and allow consumers to spend the saved money on new goods, creating jobs and boosting production. Not having to find ways to lower one’s prices thus protects us from the creative destruction which ultimately powers economic growth. A poor policy whatever way you look at it then. – Yours, etc,