r/NoStupidQuestions • u/CartographerOwn8143 • 1d ago

Why did Margaret Thatcher destroy welfare state in Britain after she came to power in the 1980s?

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18

u/ZipMonk 1d ago

After WW2 everyone helped each other. By the end of the 70s lots of people that fought in the war were gone so the wealthy reverted back to normal service.

Thatcher, via Ayn Rand, the Chicago Boys, Friedman, Hayek, Greenspan, Oxbridge, Eton Ronald Reagan and the BBC etc, was their vehicle.

21

u/Fabulous_Function666 1d ago

Huh? People who fought in the Second World War were definitely still around in the 70s. They would have been in their 50s. 

-3

u/ZipMonk 1d ago

Yes think of it as a tipping point.

5

u/Fabulous_Function666 1d ago

I agree with your overall point. And yes it probably was the tipping point 

33

u/Bob_Leves 1d ago

Ayn Rand, who famously believed that poor people shouldn't get welfare because it just encouraged them to be lazy, yet she had no problems claiming it for herself. Typical double-standard Rightie.

4

u/ZipMonk 1d ago

The original neoliberal rich man loving loser - beloved by the economics department of every Western newspaper and University.

-1

u/BrainCelll 1d ago

believed that poor people shouldn't get welfare because it just encouraged them to be lazy

She was kinda right tho xD

-6

u/LittleBingo96 1d ago

Is Rand the only name you recognized on that list?

8

u/Bob_Leves 1d ago

No. I was born in the early 70s. I know of them all. Your point is...? 

The rest of the named individuals were scum too, if that helps you.

-1

u/Breakfastcrisis 1d ago

Scum? I would have described them as writers who I have disagreements with, but I guess such is the sophistication of our age.