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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPoll: Thatcher's economic policies seen as a failure after her death
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On the economic front, the record is mixed but mostly negative. Her overall shakeup of the tax system splits the country down the middle the 38% who support the Thatcherite move to increase VAT in order to fund income tax cuts are matched by 38% who say this fiscal switch didn't work.
It's a different story at the top end, however. The sweeping 1980s cuts to top tax rates were sold as unleashing the energy of wealth creators, but they are today judged to have failed by a substantial 47% to 28% margin.
And amid a fresh slump even deeper than that of the 1980s, the Thatcherite macroeconomic mix namely, putting lower inflation first, and considering unemployment only second is rejected, by a 41% to 33% margin.
Even more striking is the retrospective rejection of the archetypal institutional reform, the privatisation of utilities such as gas and water by 49% to 35% Britons say this did not work. Last, and perhaps least surprising, there is the flagship on which Thatcher went down the poll tax, or more properly the community charge. It is deemed a retrospective failure by a 70% to 14% margin.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/09/opinion-sharply-divide-margaret-thatcher
Turbineguy
(37,208 posts)because facts don't matter, it's what you believe that counts.
pipoman
(16,038 posts)I think they have been seen as failure for a decade or two now...
LeftishBrit
(41,192 posts)50% still think her rule was a good thing - though perhaps this is inflated right now due to her having just died.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)because the degree to which individuals here in the UK were realistically affected on each topic is a function of age.
Taking inflation as an example - inflation figures across the '70's and 80's are displayed here : http://safalra.com/other/historical-uk-inflation-price-conversion/ Those periods of high inflation were not in the least bit funny for anyone. If those outside the UK wish to draw a comparison then figure out what the effect on your mortgage would be now if the rate now was say 16%.
I'm not saying that getting inflation down was more important than general levels of employment but don't quite understand why that specific comparison has been drawn anyway.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)Now hopefully we can get Americans to see the same thing about Reagan.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Trying to make sense of their economic and political theories is a waste of everyody's time.
"Privatization" is just a new name for enclosing the public commons, an old and very lucrative racket, and much easier than honest business practice.