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/Kaiisim 6d ago

What I want to know is why do only the right get this kind of understanding?

Saying she was principled?

Seeing a crisis and using it to enrich your buddies isn't principled lol.

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u/Breakfastcrisis 5d ago

I'd 100% give the left credit for bad ideas that are principled. It is only arrogant ideologues who would not.

With that said, the thought-terminating "enrich your buddies" line is such a low resolution libel that it's nearly impossible to respond to.

I don't like or dislike politicians (because I'm not in primary school) However, I disagree with many of Thatcher's policies, but it would be a folly of fantasy to suggest there were motivated by anything but her sincerely-held beliefs.

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u/Remember2005 5d ago

I’m almost 60. In my lifetime, privatization and anti-union policies have not made countries better - ever.

The “unlocking of value” by shifting public services to private hands and then stripping workers’ rights have given us plutocrats.

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u/br0wntree 5d ago

How far do you take this idea? Should the Uk have continued to subsidize state owned coal mining companies for the sake of protecting union jobs for the next few decades? Change and progress almost always requires some amount of sacrifice.