The fact that Australia's per capita " footprint " is more than four times the world average speaks volumes about the conspicuous consuming greed coming from our middle and wealthy classes , and their political servitors.

This greed that's extincting and extincted so many species, and puts ours in jeopardy, is the triumph of the language of economy over the language of the heart: profit over people and other species wellbeing on the earth.

If we're to save our souls, austerity needs to be shared, not just be a realm for the poor. It's time the wealthier classes paid their dues, and stop ruining it for us all.

$25 extra per week to subsist below the poverty line for jobseekers, just proves that the " lifters" keep lifting it for themselves : their unfair share.

Patrick Van Raaphorst, Ballarat.

I grew up in Sebas and the very idea that they could shut the post office down is bizarre to me. I think that it's a clear example of what can happen when a local business is bought by people who have no connection to the community. Presumably they think they'll make more dollars in Delacombe but they don't want to run two post offices. They have no concern at all for the local community so they just shut the existing post office down and flip the bird at the Sebastopol community.

Since when is a suburb of 10000 people too small to have its own post office? Makes you wonder how many other profitable post offices are on the brink of closure.

Gary Smith, Redan.

I'd like to reassure Jeremy Bride (letter dated 22/2, 'Solar power not what it promises') that all of us at Powercor care for our customers. We are constantly investing in our network to help customers make the most of their investments in new technologies like solar, electric vehicles and batteries. In the next few months for example, you will see crews upgrading the network in the Ballarat region as part of a broad program which aims to improve the export capacity for an estimated 50,000 current and potential solar customers in nine western Victoria regions.

Like many in the national electricity market, we have experienced extraordinary demand which has grown faster than our network had the capacity to accommodate. One in every five of our residential customers now has rooftop solar. We ask customers to check with us before they connect solar and make use of a wide range of information online (www.powercor.com.au/solar-energy) to help them feel confident in their decisions.

We don't prevent anyone from installing solar for their own self-consumption. But if you are counting on exports then we need to make sure the network in your community can accommodate them. Otherwise, it can affect the quality of power for all customers in the area, including those without solar PV.

We fully appreciate the future of energy is being driven by customer choices and we have a big role in enabling them.

Bill Fahey, Manager Embedded Generation, Powercor

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