There was a time when radical economic ideas came from the political right. Fed up with failed government intervention in business, high inflation, unions preventing modernisation and a welfare state seen as too comfortable for those out of work, the Reagan and Thatcher governments of the 1980s tore down the boundaries of the state. They were copied to varying degrees by other advanced economies, enjoyed popular support and consigned the left to be small “c” conservatives, defending the old ways.
As rich countries begin to emerge from the pandemic, it is time to ask what lessons it provides for the way we run our economic systems. Many people have already made up their minds. My inbox groans with pressure groups, business organisations and politicians recommending exactly the same policies as they have always advocated and merely adding that Covid-19 increases the necessity of those changes.
But a notable exception is a survey conducted by the Pew Research Centre, which sought to find out what the public wanted from the economic system rather than telling them what they should get. Some of the findings are unhelpful. It is no surprise that large majorities in the US, Germany, France and the UK would like other people to pay for stuff that they think would benefit them.