Jason: Thatcherism happened because socialism wasnt working, theories and ideologies come and go but practical realities stay ( bills have to be paid ). Thatcher was voted in, it was a democratic decision, people felt they would be better off. Capitalism is a ruthless, brutish system, but it does seem to work.Arlo: I agree totally, Jason! Most specifically Thatcher's monetarist policies. Sure, Britain's output fell in 1981, and its manufacturing output was 10% lower, and, okay, investment was 30% lower, but manufacturing was a full 3.5% higher in 1984 than it was in 1979! And who cares that unemployment was 5% in 1979, but well over 10% by 1985?* Thatcher's main job was weakening the unions, and that she did!
Jason: I personally think it must be tempered by a welfare state, but, lets be realistic here, we are not all born equal ( genes ), we do not all try our best for ourselves and society ( louts ).
Arlo: How right (correct) you (Jason) are! And the fact (reality) that people (humans) aren't intrinsically (basically) the same (equal) naturally (of course) means (indicates) that some people (persons) should rule (preside) over (above) the mass of bums (louts).
Jason: Clever, hard working, pretty people should have nicer houses and more kids than stupid,lazy,ugly people - we are a construct of evolutionary favour not ideas and theories.
Arlo: Notice to all the stupid, lazy, ugly people: Get out of the gene pool right now. Head to the showers, babes!
More Arlo: But why is Bill Gates so rich? Which one of these isn't he?
Still more Arlo: (This is a joke. I find Bill Gates very good-looking!)
Jason: In the wild there is no tax on the well adapted lion so that the badly adapted lion can have more meat. Or am i wrong, do socialist communes exist in nature?
Arlo: Well, being an expert in zoological economics I can help you out here. The lion community is, as you indicate, notoriously dog-eat-dog. They structure their parliament on a one-lion-one-vote basis, but in recent years the influence of politcal action money has caused many lions to lose faith in their government. Thus the percentage of lions who abstain from voting has risen dramatically in recent years. While some commentators see this as an indication of the over-all satisfaction that lions have in their system, still others see the non-voting lion bloc as a REVOLUTIONARY FORCE.
Now, elephants have a strong socialist tradition, a tradition which guarantees calf-to-carcass welfare. With 6 weeks paid vacation guaranteed to each elephantworker, elephants are the envy of the wilderness. But, they pay for their safety with high taxes and niggling, nanny bureaucracy. It's safe to say we shouldn't be looking for any great inventions to come from such a backward, co-dependent society, however secure it might feel for the average Joe Elephant, known for its laziness and propensity for spitting water on itself.
Course then you have fish, who follow each other around in a mysterious fasion. And there's birds who talk to each other in code. But my favorite lesson from nature is the black widow spider kills her mate.
I think Thatcher studied up on these techniques.
Arlo
*Economic statistics can be found in*
Kenneth Morgan's "The People's Peace: British History 1945-1989"
Hugo Young's "One of Us"
Alan Sked and Chris Cook's "Post War Britain"
The animal bits were a joke. If you didn't know that, you're not clever and shouldn't reproduce.
