Here we go again with the smelly fish version of history. We were talking about leaving the country in 1977 because of the Labour inspired recession.

Mrs Thatcher did not come to power until May 1979 in the wake of the terrible "winter of discontent" recession.

The terrible figures you mention were the result of the Labour Callaghan government who mismanaged/destroyed the economy to such an extent that Mrs T won the next three elections which enabled her to turn the country around. History is just repeating itself come to think of it.

Do you deliberately twist the facts or are you just ignorant of them?

Do you also find self loathing therapeutic as well as despising individuals less fortunate than yourself?

You mean running their own business?

You said people should get off their backsides and do something to change their situation.
Does that include working together with others to improve many peoples working lives?

Where is the like button?

The thing is, if all these people "got off their backsides, and achieved" then the world would essentially grind to a halt. Who would stack the shelves in the supermarket? Who would load the luggage on to the planes at the airport? Who would process the invoices for all the "achievers"?
What would happen if developing commodity exporting countries, and the workers within those countries working for peanuts because they don't feel they have another choice suddenly realised that they're being bent over, and actually started charging a more appropriate price for their labour, commodities?

The fact is, big business needs a significant amount of unskilled labour to pick from to exploit. It needs a high level of poverty, and corruption in developing countries to keep their import costs down.
Governments need people on welfare to buy votes. Big business needs government, to be able the pass legislation that favours their interests.
There're are definitely people in society who are parasites, and exploit the system, but many of those people are the ones who designed the system in the first place.