Thatcher/Reagan: Take from the poor and give to the rich

It has been written, never speak ill of the dead.

In the case of Margaret Thatcher, this unofficial 11th commandment has been and needs to be cast aside.

First, here at HGP, we send condolences to the Thatcher family.

But now let's honestly explore the Thatcher legacy.

As prime minister for 11 years (1979 to 1990), Thatcher broke the gender glass ceiling by becoming Britain's first female head of state. In terms of politics and policy, Thatcher legacy is more appropriately the Reagan/Thatcher legacy and it is alive and thriving -- the reverse Robin Hood doctrine:

Take from the poor and give to the rich.

Both Reagan and Thatcher were co-architects -- or puppets for the uber wealthy-- of the greatest transfer of wealth in modern history. They both took glee in dismantling, eliminating and crippling government programs designed to help the poor, working class and middle-class. Programs that invested in the average citizens were defunded.

Programs that provided summer jobs and job training for urban youths were first demonized and then cut from the federal budgets.

They privatized and sold off government enterprises to Mitt Romney type greedy tycoons. The 1980's ushered in an era of corporate greed, unwise deregulation, Wall Street corruption, corporate welfare, centralization of wealth and companies too big to fail: Profits became private and losses were to be absorbed by the public.

The promised trickle down never, never, never happened!

As LaFeminista wrote in the Daily Kos

An end of an era?
Not so much.
the damage is still all around
On both sides of the pond.
The crushing inequality.
The over-lordship of the bankers.
The grinding destruction of the middle class.
The austerity fiasco of the present.
I come not to mourn an era
But to bury it.
Since after all
We have the bill
Rather than investing in the countries they lead,
They have been stripped
To fuel the greed of the few.
The youth of Europe and at home
Should know who they were
All the false praise
Of this day
Should be rejected
Since they started
This decay.
I've come over
All Edscan
damn.