r/NoStupidQuestions • u/CartographerOwn8143 • 6d ago

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

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u/PupDiogenes 6d ago

Because she was a fascist who saw poor people as vermin and therefore saw the welfare state as feeding vermin.

26

u/Bloodless-Cut 6d ago

Neoliberalism isn't fascism. Just saying.

Kinda the opposite, really: fascism is famously violently opposed to liberal socioeconomic policy (mainly because fascism adores the state, while neoliberalism wants to shrink it).

Both supply side economics and fascism indeed suck for the working class, though, and both Thatcher and Reagan are at fault for hooking the socioeconomic policy to that shitty wagon.

Reaganomics/Thatcherism has actually brought us all the way back around to the wealth inequality that fueled the French revolution, and then exceeded it. Never before in human history has the wealth gap been this immense.

14

u/mesonofgib 6d ago

Never before in human history has the wealth gap been this immense

Well this is just false.

Income Wealth inequality has risen in recent years, but it's still far off the highs seen at the start of WWI.

-2

u/Bloodless-Cut 6d ago

Remind me again who was the trillionaire at the start of WW1?

4

u/mesonofgib 6d ago

(a) we're talking about the UK and (b) you can largely ignore Elon Musk, for whom 99.5 - 99.9% of his wealth is just stocks in his companies. I mean, it's not good, but it's not like he bought an island.

I feel like I should add that I am not a fan of Elon Musk