People keep blaming Thatcher and Reagan for so many modern ills and, honestly, I think that's part of why we're not getting out of this mess.
Yes, they were terrible leaders who introduced a lot of bad stuff. There was virtually nothing good about them.
They were also only there for a few years. They were a blip.
The true problem is every single successor they've had since. Directly in the UK and the US and indirectly in many other countries. They've all kept things in place and built upon them. Very little has ever been countered in the decades that came after T&R, especially when it comes to the economy and social infrastructure.
This is a system. Sure, Thatcher and Reagan may have laid the groundwork (though there were many before them, just less consequential) but it was merely the foundation.
Others had to build, and they've done so eagerly. Had they changed course instead, which would have made sense as cracks were showing everywhere, we'd live in a different world today.
Please stop focusing on the individuals, especially those from the past. Look at the systems, the enablers and those who just keep the same course even when it's clearly a failed strategy.
Don't look at the puppets, look at the theatre.
A theatre crumbling under its own weight that we refuse to tear down so we can build something better.
Just shouting at the poor puppetry, changing the colour of the stage lights or complaining about past performances is not going to do anything.
@116971578141103944 The Thatcher period, which ended with John Major lasted for 18 years. It was not a blip. Also the changes made to the top rate of income tax during the Thatcher government were not reversed by any subsequent government. This set in motion the widening inequality gap. So what Thatcher did in the 1980s remains responsible for where we are now. It set the frame for everything else that followed. Apart from the latest PM installed recently, each PM after Thatcher felt obligated to make some speech declaring how much they admired Thatcher.
The Thatcher phenomena is very much a cult, so this is an example of the outsized influence of a single individual within history. The current Conservative leader models herself on Thatcher, as did a few previous leaders.
The recent break with the orthodoxy of declaring admiration for Thatcher is perhaps an encouraging sign that the decades long curse of Thatcherism is wearing off.