Notable Quote

"Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people's money."

— Thatcher, Margaret

Context: TV interview for Thames Television's This Week (Llew Gardner), 5 February 1976. Often paraphrased online as "The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money"; this is the verified verbatim wording from the broadcast transcript. Thatcher used a near-identical line the previous year: "They've got the usual Socialist disease: they've run out of other people's money" (Conservative Party Conference speech, 10 October 1975).