So what you two are telling me is the Socialism 2.0 in the UK will be a compromise version that acknowledges the boomers have cheated the youth?
Broadly, but it depends just how savage Cameron's cuts turn out to be.
Boomers in the UK are willing to sacrifice?
But what changes if the economy gets really bad and many boomers are suffering?
Utter shock from them I should think. It would seem inconceivable that their world could be turned upside down. Maybe a mixture of compassion and social unrest, but probably on a smaller scale than say France. We bungled the Peasants' Revolt in 1381.
Wasn't Thatcher a revolution or was she just restoring Brit conservatism?
I was 18 when she came to power. It did seem like some sort of revolution at the time; a very British revolution, you might say, with the dismantling of turbulent unions, widespread cuts, and the move away from traditional industry to finance and the service sector. Many working-class voters loved the fact they could buy thier social (council) housing at bargain prices and play at being shareholders. MA is certainly a big fanboy of hers. At the time it seemed too radical to be conservative with a small "c". She has had a lasting effect on Britain. Personally, I despised the woman (so too Tony Blair, to balance things a little). Though I'll concede there has been no Prime Minister in her league since then.
How did the Brits handle the Great Depression differently than the rest of Europe?
Unfortunately, I'm unable to say anything useful regarding how we handled it in comparison. But my 90-year-old father lived through it, experiencing very real poverty through the '30s, significantly worse than what we are currently experiencing, or what most younger Brits could even conceive of. It has clearly scarred him psychologically. Brits were far more deferential back then than they are now, and bore it with a stiff upper lip and made the best of things without complaining, which would be unlikley now I feel. It's what fed the appetite for change after WWII, with the introduction of the NHS and Welfare State in times which were even more debt-ridden than today. This folk memory, I believe, pervades the British culture even now, so that we are very attached to what we see as a very civilized resource.
I am really lacking the knowledge set. I'd need to research all these to get some insight.
I hope more Brits will offer their own opinions and insights here.
I can just tell you the USA politics is highly polarized. The USA is no longer united by culture and language. There are regions that are still more united than not, e.g. many of the whites escaped California for the NorthWest. Texas is its own country, etc.
That's interesting. That kind of chimes with what I have absorbed by reading a number of American blogs and forums over the last year or two. Especially what you say about Texas.
OK, I'll bid you goodnight.