The move towards Right

About a century ago the political landscape was a clear battle between the socialists and the libertarians/liberals. One demanded a total State-control and -ownership, the other increased individual liberty and decreased State-interference. The libertarians won. Western countries put together constitutions which more or less had the only purpose of tieing down the hands of the State and making sure people had protected human and property rights in a democratic system. The countries which took this path overran every other country in success, wealth, peace and harmony. This is the short version of the history of the 20th century.

What has happened since? The Left sees that socialism doesn't work. Government-owned and -run health care, educational and welfare systems expand rapidly in costs and decrease in quality. The solution at first is to pump more money into the bottomless pits and see what happens. Nothing happens of course so the next solution is to read about the ideas of the Right and change them into something which sounds like its from the Left. Lets take an example:

The European welfare system is on the verge of collapse in every respect. Social security runs at a huge deficit in the big "welfare" states of Europe. Jobs are not being created. The economy is stagnating. More and more people retire or are "unemployed" while fewer and fewer bring in the bacon. What to do?

One suggestion for a solution for some of those problems: Privatize services the State now provides but continue funding them with taxes (as a first step).

For the Leftist this would seem like an awful idea (because it mean less State). However, the Leftist knows in his heart its a good one. I know the Leftist knows that because Leftists have been privatizing wildly all over Europe for the past few years. But how?

The Leftist can't say privatize. He could say outsourcing or contracting. Still not a good idea. He could go through multinational institutions like the European Union, fight for increased privatization and liberalization on a super-state level, and thereby always have the excuse of saying the whole privatization-deal is forced in from above. Brilliant!

The important thing is that the Left is moving towards the Right. Good things result from that. Maybe we will one day realize the libertarian-society of Star Trek where collectiveness is nothing but a few cubes of Borgs in the distance?