FYI I actually lived through the Thatcher years so witnessed first hand the effects of her policies. I lived in one of the communities that she destroyed through her policies of privatization (enriching her supporters in the process) leaving thousands of workers with no future employment prospects and very little hope as the private sector having made its money promptly left town and did not deliver any of the promised new jobs.

(I agree that the actions of the unions in 70s are also to the blame, but a better approach would have been to engage the unions and slowly transition to better balance of public and private sector industries rather than the union busting and throwing the baby out with the bathwater that MacGregor and Thatcher did)

In answer to your question would I rather pay billions in the cost of benefits to support people being unemployed or billions keeping people working in nationalized industries or the public sector ? At least with the latter you are getting something back for your money rather than people sitting on their arse all day watching daytime TV.