Economists do not legislate and don't control the budget. Politics bastardises the economics.

That is not what she allegedly said

I don't know very much about economics, but I am aware that of the debate about whether or not it is a science. The difficulty with considering it a science is that it leads people to think the more they understand it, the more they can control it.

Unlike natural sciences, economics, if it is a science at all, is a social science, and the main thing to understand with all social sciences is that they are unpredictable because they are based upon human agency, and humans can be very hard to predict, especially when they operate in complex systems.

In the UK's case it was straght down the toilet

Patient made a good recovery

It didn't recover though, did it? Even if you accept Thatcher's legacy as mainly positive, which is a fair enough argument to make, the best you could say is that she delayed the Final Meltdown which we are seeing now. Others would say she expedited it.

I'm not getting involved in the arguments that are going on in this thread. All I know is that in 1979 the UK was a basketcase, quicky turning into a Western European version of Greece and in 1990 it wasn't.

It is a big subject with some areas that are predictable (printing money causes inflation) to areas where there are assumptions such as perfect markets and information. As you say, humans are not predictable.

It is a mix of social science and science.

Politicians are far more influenced by banking lobbyists than economists. Politicians know tax up tax down is simple for simpletons to understand. As politicians don't follow economic theory the theory is screwed from the start.

Northerners and Scots seem to feel it landed on them.

Like I said in a previous post; I thought Scotch and bitter were types of drink

Apparently not

Thatcher ushered in a me,me,me society, where people knew the price of everything and the value of nothing. She waged war on the working classes, particularly those that belonged to a trade union. Her tacit support of Apartheid in South Africa, her support of Pinnochets fascist dictatorship in Chile and her friendship with Jimmy Saville are beyond contempt. What saddened me most about Britain under Thatcher was not the greed, the hypocrisy or the fact that the most vulnerable in society were punished, but the breakdown of community. She considered herself the ultimate patriot but unwittingly destroyed the very thing that made Britain such a fantastic place to live. What we are left with is an underclass devoid of hope and ambition. A Frankenstein monster vilified for their reliance on benefits when their is no work left for them to do. A chronic shortage of social housing because of Thatchers wish to 'control' working people though the sale of council housing, (when you are tied to a mortgage you are far more unlikely to strike against unjust management). A banking system bailed out by the tax payer - yet still able to award immoral bonuses. Austerity my arse!

I'm not sure. Personally I think it interesting that in the US and the UK people are so anti-the banking system when it and the wealthy elite have been around a lot longer. It's true that they took the piss and that the GFC came along and the Big bang and deregulation happened on her watch but I don't think the crisis was all about Thatcherism.

I'm not sure that the way we lived in the 70s was any better and I think as technology grew we would have seen more of a growth in the private and service sector in any case. Look at us now - a bunch of individual people on an internet forum who when the inclination takes us are more interested in tiny details in our own lives than in a real community. If anything the internet and technology and social media will do more to destroy a sense of community than anything else that came along.

We've always had a working class, and a underclass. Look at the slums before the Second World War - they were an underclass of people. You could argue communities were in decline as the nuclear family came to overtake the extended family. This was happening long before Thatcher.

Just sayin'

Maggie kicked off deregulation. That started the consolidation and the banks so big the auditors and lawyers quaked in their presence. Any politician from either side was lobbied heavily to shape legislation in favour of the banks. The regulators were left toothless by all governments.

In short she created the monster that fed off everyone afterwards.

Change was needed but the GFC shows the system was broke many countries.

How would you know anyway? Whilst beating your slaves with ginormous leaves.

All governments overspend, we'll agree on that. Whether that is the fault of the economic model or the problems caused by, or the incompetence of, various chancellors we can debate another time.

Awesome, I'm just putting up the bunting