Dear Editor

...On the issues that matter most to women, most Republicans stand squarely with Ronald Reagan on the wrong side of the gender gap Of course, as women grow more formidable at the polls and skillful at legislative maneuvering, Republicans (and Democrats') who advocate governmental intrusion into reproductive and moral matters will find themselves increasingly out m the cold Mollison would claim that this ignores "the willingness of these women to work effectively with conservatives in areas where their interests overlap " The fact is that conservatives have few interests in common with women Madison, Wis Jane Thorpe Bunny Money I see no reason for fussing if the feminists take money from the Playboy Foundation and kindred organizations, as Richard J Margolis describes in "Funding Feminists" (NL, July 11-25) In turning down Hugh Hefner's support, the ladies at Ms are being too finicky...

...Dear Editor The Pope in Poland At the risk of sounding like a misinformed cynic, I must dispute Andrew J Glass' fervently admiring assessment of the Pontiffs latest jaunt to his homeland ("The Pope and the General," NL, June 27) Glass writes "Uninformed predictions that he would show restraint and advocate compromise proved as false as shallow post-mortems implying that he had sold out Solidarity and its leader, Lech Walesa, while contriving a modus Vivendi for the church with Jaruzelski " It appears to me, anyway, that John Paul II did exactly that...

...New York City JAMES VILLIERS...

...The Affluent Society is an important book, one that changed our way of looking at things, as Brockway maintains Yet Galbraith, like Brockway, can be wrong on critical points There is no evidence whatever that advertising increases aggregate consumer spending (except for the trivial increases represented by the consumer spending of those employed in advertising) What advertising does is to increase spending for particular products or brands, at the expense of other products or brands From this it follows, as Brockway would put it, that the existence of advertising does not tell us that American consumers as a whole spend too much, nor that their choices lack legitimacy But rather conventional economics tells us that we can't leave all choices to consumers because the economy left to its own devices will undersupply public goods It may make unexciting copy, still, the fact is that the mainstream of the dismal science is not hostile to government per se New York City Dick Netzer Director, Urban Research Center New York University Gender Gap I think Andrew Mollison overestimates the willingness of politically active women to work with Republicans ("Widening the 'Gender Gap,'" NL, July 11-25) The values that the women's groups, even the more conservative ones, espouse are far more liberal than those of the Republican mainstream It is true that women's organizations have cooperated with conservatives in spotwelding some faulty legislation, especially on the details of tax law that Mollison mentions (for example, a cut in the marriage tax penalty, a boost in the child-care tax credit and the elimination of the widow's tax) Nevertheless, these are relatively minor agreements...

...New York City William Cunningham Brockway The Great Communicator had the right words for George P Brockway's "Rereading Galbraith" (NL, June 13) "There you go again " Yes, "much of what passes for economics" is a waste of time, the time-wasting proportion of the total may be exceeded only in magazine nonfiction What's wrong with economics, however, is not what Brockway in this column (or in any other) says is the problem Brockway claims that, "If there is no way of judging relative wants," there is no way of making things either better or worse Not so We don't have to weigh individuals' preferences to assert that, if more of some wants can be satisfied without reducing the resources devoted to other wants, things are better A good many of us economists (usually microeconomists) devote ourselves to just this kind of positive-sum game, the quest for policies and institutional changes that involve few and inconsequential losers and losses and substantial gains to the rest of us We don't have to sneer about advertising-induced tastes (like packaged holiday tours that may crowd Gstaad) to do something worthwhile...