The Iron
Lady and José Luis Sampedro died the same day; maybe it’s the only thing they
have ever shared
Margaret
Thatcher (aged 87) and José Luis Sampedro (aged 96) both passed away last Monday
April the 8th. Although Thatcher (Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom for eleven years) is more famous, and she had a very important role in
constructing the world we know, Sampedro (writer, humanist and economist) was
one of the most important thinkers in Spain.
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| He was most known as a writer and left thinker, and se was the first and unique woman to be Prime Minister in the UK. / lecturalia.com & DailiMail.co.uk |
In spite of
the fact that they died the same day, they probably had never met and,
moreover, they probably had never agreed. Thatcher was one (with Ronald Reagan and Milton Friedman) of
the most convinced neoliberal ever. Sampedro admitted anarchist in his
nineteen, and have been denouncing the neoliberal system for years. They can
represent the fight between extreme liberalism and the humanist - left. That’s
why we want to put Sampedro and Thatcher front to front.
“There can be no liberty
unless there is economic liberty” M. Thatcher
Iron Lady was always convinced that the free market, privatisation and
liberalization were the best options to rule the economy. She stood out while
Prime Minister for her fights against unions and public system.
“They
say that the market is freedom, but I want to know which freedom in the market
has someone without a cent. When they speak about liberty, we should ask immediately:
who owns this freedom?” J.L. Sampedro
Contrary to
Thatcher, Sampedro had always denounced that free-markets don’t promote
liberty. He stated lots of times that poor people don’t have any freedom
because they don’t have money. He believed that free markets only benefits rich
people, who have the real freedom.
“There is no alternative” M. Thatcher
She repeated
this tag lots of times. According to her, deregulation and privatisation were
the only way to manage the economy. She believed trusted that any other
alternative would have fallen and couldn’t have worked. Extreme liberalism was
the only way of governing.
“There is always possibilities
to do things, but they have to want it” J.L. Sampedro
The Spaniard
economist thought very differently to Thatcher. Opposite to TINA (acronym of there is no alternative), he spread that
everything is possible with the willing. He claimed to change economic system
and he denounced that leaders didn’t want to do it. That’s why he supported indignados movement in Spain.
“Pennies do not come from
heaven. They have to be earned here on earth” M. Thatcher
As almost every conservative governor, she didn’t like to finance people who
need. Instead, she always demanded people to work hard and earn money by
themselves (despite unemployment had a huge increase while she was in
government). She didn’t like the government subsidising because it was seen as
a distortion in a free market.
“They
taught us to be producers and consumers, nor to be free men” J.L. Sampedro
Despite freedom was one of the
mantras of Thatcher, it was also very important in Sampedro thinking. He wanted
to live in a society built by free men and women, but he believed that it has
to be constructed by putting effort in education, and not only in the free
market as Iron Lady thought.
“It is not the creation of
wealth that is wrong, but the love of money for its own sake.” M. Thatcher
“Money
as supreme good leads us to disaster” J.L. Sampedro
Even opposition is the best
word to describe what Thatcher and Sampedro thought, they agreed on one thing:
avarice is not a good thing. Probably they arrived to this conclusion following
very different ways, but they both thought that loving money for its own sake wasn’t
a good thing to do. However we agree with Sampedro or with Thatcher, we would
have learned it. The financial downturn we are living tells us that we haven’t.
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