I’m English and grew up in the 1970s and ‘80s in London. It wasn’t a particularly fruitful time for anyone, including me, our family and the general economy. Unions had control of the workforce, and throughout the ‘70s the unions were in a battle with the Government. A new leader was brought in. She was anti-union and her focus was on giving the power back to the people. Her name was Margaret Thatcher. Whether you loved her or hated her, she changed Britain in so many ways.
One of the strategies Thatcher employed, and really was a pioneer of, was privatization. This was the process of selling government assets to the public. Thatcher said that privatization was a chance to give “power back to the people”. The people felt great about owning a piece of the country. That was the first steps towards a huge boom in the ‘80s led by tax cuts and low interest rates that incidentally also led to a horrible bust in 1990/92. However, the privatizations (arguably) were a real success.