Also notably, many of the European social programs that American politicians love to screech about were actually promoted by European (and as late as Eisenhower, American) conservatives as a way to keep a lid on communist sentiment. Basically, the idea was that the wealthy could give up a little and in exchange, these programs would keep people happy enough that they wouldn't go and start the revolution. Which, as far as I can tell, actually has worked pretty good so far. I think the US gave up on that because they figured out that using their propaganda machine was a lot cheaper for the wealthy.

But investors are desperate to scuttle those european programs and get those sweet sweet privatization dollars, and I don't think the propaganda machine is quite as powerful there. It would be really funny if the attempts to speedrun removal of social safety nets and implement privatization blew up in their face and led to a brand new revolution.

The end goal is absolutely going back to serfdom. Keep cranking up rent prices until people agree to work for less than minimum wage but they get housing. This sure seems like a good way tonget the ball rolling by making sure people are already locked into poverty wages with no education at the age of 14.