Thatcher in Hindsight

Thanks to David Simon I have finally settled on an opinion about Thatcher's legacy. Many of her economic reforms were intelligent, hard won and ultimately beneficial, but she failed to understand the importance of distinguishing between a capitalist economy and a capitalist society. Like her role model Winston Churchill, she was a good PM when there was a war to fight, but inappropriate in peacetime. She waged war on entrenched union power, complacent male domination of politics and  Eurocrat masters of the coin..oh yea and the Argentinians. With the exception of the real war (the Falklands) to which there were surely diplomatic alternatives that went untested, all these battles needed fighting and the 'enemies' of the second and third had it coming. It was the battle against the unions that points to the ugly side of Thatcherism. No doubt there were underlying economic imperatives related to globalisation and other macro-economic factors beyond the control of any post-empire British PM that made tackling the unions necessary and even desirable, but couldn't she have worked not only to win against the Skargills, but also to limit the collateral damage to people whose lives and livelihoods were in the front line?
    And then there were the privatisations. Couldn't we all have benefited? Now that I have money to invest I appreciate how easy it is to become a share holder, but in those days families like ours didn't own shares. I was 14 when Thatcher came to power and 25 when she was ousted and although I instinctively turned away when her face (and that condescendingly mocking voice) appeard on the telly I didn't begin to understand why until I spent a weekend in Leyland with a group of car plant workers one of whom, after half a dozen tins of Tetley bitter launched into a monologue about how people who had a few thousand quid to spare at the time of a flotation would buy shares, which they could because the big buyers were limited in how many shares they could buy, then sell them the following day at a huge mark up (because there was no limit the day after the floatation). "It's like Christmas in the better off neighborhoods," he spat, "they're all buying new cars and getting swimming pools built." Tory voters to a man, obviously.
    Thatcher was divisive because her economic reforms benefited some groups in society and hurt others. I have to confess that I like the emphasis on self-reliance that entering the job market during Thatcher's tenure has undoubtedly strengthened in me. However, a great leader should not only have the ability to keep going their own way and following their convictions in the face of opposition, but also have a feeling for how the consequences of their decisions fall on the less powerful. Thatcher's victories were ultimately pyrrhic because her lack of feeling for alternative world views to her own provincial and, let's be honest, at times mean-spirited one meant that she failed to see the larger meaning in the economic upheavals that she struggled to steer. Capitalism is trying to suck every last drop of human energy and striving-for-meaning into the zero sum battle to acquire money. A capitalist economy is an essential tool for improving living standards, something almost everyone wants. But society cannot and should not be allowed to be reduced to purely economic terms; and the grounds on which the distinction can be maintained are about community, social cohesion, equality and other related concepts which Thatcher was too caught up in her own battles and background to develop a feel for.