Barry
envy and spite (though I think you may have confused compassion for them) are as destructive as greed and vindictiveness. This government has all the hallmarks of Thatcher's 1979 government in that they give the sense that 'it is our turn now and we are going to punish the 'feckless' (i.e. the most vulnerable in society - the disabled, the poor) whilst we gorge ourselves on money'.
This creates the image of 'us and them' and acts as a further social divide widening the gap that wealth has created over the past 30 years.
Your vision of a private sector freed of government 'interference' is logically a nightmare (have a look at the facts section of
http://www.walmartwatch.org to see that big business, in one of the supposedly most liberal and competitive business regimes in the world, already ignores community needs and actually influences political decision making.