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Thursday, October 13, 2005

New Economist: Thatcher's legacy revisited:
"There is a common theme uniting all these points. It’s that Thatcher was a class warrior, not an economic libertarian. Where market reforms benefited the rich (exchange controls) or bribed floating voters (council house sales), she supported them. Where market reforms could have helped the poor (school vouchers, macro markets), she did nothing...

And this is where her influence was wholly pernicious. She has given a generation of non-economists the impression that support for free markets is equivalent to support for the vested interests of the rich. Nothing could be further from the truth."

2 comments:

  1. do you want us to comment on his interoatation of thatcher's action or the effect of her actions as viewed by the given interpatation?

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  2. I wasn't really thinking that comments had to be driven one way or another. My knowledge about her administration is insufficient for any decent analysis. However, I just found it interesting that some think her influence on people's perceptions of conservativism is just as significant as the actual policies she set forth.

    And as far as the perceptions extend, I think they remain real concerns for many who can't see free market based ideas as anything but dangerous to particular social classes. It's a shame.

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