ABSTRACT
The effects of these changes that have been outlined for citizens were very uneven. The free market economy did create considerable wealth. However, much of this wealth was not invested but was paid in the form of bonuses, dividends or large salaries for a minority of ‘fat cat’ executives. Undoubtedly, for some citizens, this was a time of unprecedented wealth creation. For others, however, it was a time characterised by increasing unemployment, increasing poverty and an increasing sense of disaffection with society. With an increasing number of disaffected citizens, society was becoming divided between those citizens who were empowered and included within society, and those that were becoming impoverished and facing social exclusion. Expressed another way, the unregulated individualism in the private sector produced the ‘yuppies’ and ‘fat cats’, in sharp contrast to the ‘scroungers’ on welfare benefits or those employed in the low paid public services.
