The classic period of the ‘modern’ state in the West was in the decades between 1945 and 1980. It was not a utopia by any means, but it did have certain key characteristics: a faith in the power of government to create better societies, a consequent prestige for the idea of public services as an admirable ethic, a commitment to the belief that societies should become more equal over time, and an optimistic view of human nature in which altruism, trust, self-sacrifice and mutual benefit were given at least as big a place as the potential for violence, hatred and self-destructive selfishness.…

Beginning with a specific strain in mathematical economics in the United States, the idea took hold that human beings are actually isolated, coldly rational creatures who are programmed to seek only their own advantage. These instincts and desires could best be served and kept in equilibrium by understanding people as both competitors and consumers. They get resources by ruthlessly competing with each other and they express their individuality by using those resources to make consumer choices. Everything else – altruism, ‘the public interest’, ‘public services’ – is an illusion. Those who believe in such notions are either idiots or – in this mentality, more admirably – hypocrites, using rhetoric to mask their real pursuit of their own personal advantage. (O’Toole, 2012: 40)