In order to understand what was really meant by Thatcher, and why her comments as a whole present a chillingly accurate preview of the current state of 'society', you need to look at the context surrounding the quote.
I have a problem; it is the Government's job to deal with it....
The quote itself is taken from an interview with Woman's Own in 1987 under the title of "Aids, Education and the Year 2000". Whilst the rest of the interview has been lost in the annals of time, this one quote lives on; along with small snippets of the interview transcript. The transcript that I am working from can be found: here.In the interview Thatcher is asked about her beliefs in what had caused the perceived degredation of moral standards in 1980s Britain. This, she attributed to a growing attitude of buck-passing and people being unwilling to take responsibility for themselves. She summed this concept up in a thirteen-word quote, which is still relevant today: "I have a problem; it is the Government's job to deal with it.".
But it went too far. If children have a problem, it is society that is at fault. There is no such thing as society....
This is not to say that Thatcher was of the opinion that people should be entirely self-sufficient and that, ideally, the Government should not be helping anyone for any reason. In the transcript she makes it clear that the Government should provide a form of safety net for those who are sick, ill or otherwise unable to work.However, the system became over-burdened. Instead of seeing such a system as a safety net, they saw it as an all-encompassing right whereby this magical entity called "society" would take them by the hand and solve all their problems for them.
This lack of personal responsibility didn't stop at solving one's problems; society also had to take responsibility for causing the problems in the first place. As Thatcher said, people were of the opinion that: "If children have a problem, it is society that is at fault.".
And therein lies the rub. Thatcher was right. Society as such people saw it, as a tangible entity, does not exist. Society is a concept, an adjectival term, but not a living and breathing entity. Society is not an abstraction, separate from the men and women who compose it, but a living structure of individuals, families, neighbours and voluntary associations.
As Thatcher put it, "There is living tapestry of men and women and people and the beauty of that tapestry and the quality of our lives will depend upon how much each of us is prepared to take responsibility for ourselves and each of us prepared to turn round and help by our own efforts those who are unfortunate.".
In essence, if we blame 'society' for our problems and ills, then we are simply blaming ourselves. The joy of life is that it is we who make it what it is through our own choices and decisions. We choose to study, we choose to work and by the same token we can choose not to work even though we may be able to. If we fall upon unfortunate circumstances simply through our own preventable actions, then what right should we have to call upon others to solve these problems for us?
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Thatcher took the right to work away from millions who freely chose to work by privatising or removing those industries, forcing them onto the dole. She priced millions more out of the new housing market that she created from the old council houses, and removed those families safety net without remorse. She attempted the imposition of the most regressive tax in history, a tax that would have made the struggle for survival impossible for many millions more. Although claiming in this article that families and families alone were to blame for the miserable plight of children under her reign, she attempted to introduce the most regressive tax system in modern history, one that would have placed hundreds of ousands of children in abject poverty. I agree with you that the "no such thing as society" quote had been too often taken out of context. Thatcher was actually saying that she didn't believe that people should view society in abstract, as something separate from the individuals who comprise it, and that everybody has a responsibility to themselves and to other people. The trouble is, Thatcher didn't actually believe this for one second. Her ideology was ruthlessly individualist to the point of social darwinism. If she really had any time for the values of work, housing, childcare, individual and social responsibility, as she claims, she would never have introduced such barbaric policies. Actions speak louder than words.
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