Who originally coined the phrase about 'running out of other people's money'?

1. How the quote is commonly presented — Thatcher as the face of the line

Major secondary sources and quotation repositories consistently present the sentence as Margaret Thatcher’s observation about socialism: Oxford Reference cites Thatcher saying “Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people’s money” ^[1], and Snopes treats the shorter, popularly circulated form — “The trouble with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money” — as widely attributed to Thatcher ^[2]. Popular quote aggregators and opinion pieces (Goodreads, BrainyQuote, AEI, Cato commentary) also repeat the attribution without providing an original citation or a first-publication date ^{[3] [4] [5] [6]}.

2. What the fact-checking evidence says

Snopes, which investigates attributions, highlights the widely circulated nature of the quote and frames it as “attributed to former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher,” showing that even fact-checkers treat the line as part of Thatcher’s rhetorical stock though their entry does not present a definitive primary-source origin within the provided excerpt ^[2]. Oxford Reference reproduces Thatcher’s wording in context, treating it as her statement about socialist governments “always” running out of other people’s money ^[1]. These secondary sources corroborate each other in attribution but do not resolve first-use provenance in the material provided.

3. How the line is used politically and rhetorically

Conservative and free-market outlets reuse the quote as shorthand to criticize socialist or left-leaning governments; for example, AEI and Cato commentary invoke the line to frame contemporary fiscal criticisms ^{[5] [6]}. That pattern suggests the phrase functions less as a tightly documented citation and more as an emblematic quip deployed in political argument. Commentary pieces and politicians also recycle the wording in op-eds and speeches, further entrenching the Thatcher attribution in public discourse ^{[7] [5]}.

4. Limits of the available reporting — genealogy not established here

Among the provided sources there is no primary-source evidence (such as a dated speech transcript, memoir passage, or contemporary newspaper report) showing the exact first occasion the phrase was used or proving Thatcher coined it verbatim; the available sources are secondary quotations, reference entries, and opinion pieces repeating the line and attribution ^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]}. Therefore, a definitive claim that Thatcher “originally coined” the phrase cannot be established from the materials you supplied — the reporting you gave does not include an original publication or earlier attribution that would settle authorship (not found in current reporting).

5. Alternative possibilities and what to look for next

When a saying becomes proverbial, it often predates its best-known popularizer; the supplied sources do not explore earlier antecedents or trace the phrase’s evolution. To decide authorship rigorously you would need to consult Thatcher’s dated speeches, archived newspapers, parliamentary records, or a comprehensive quotation dictionary that cites first usages — documents not included in the current set (not found in current reporting). If you want, I can search beyond these provided items for a primary-source instance (e.g., Hansard, Thatcher’s writings, contemporary press) to try to locate the earliest documented use.

6. Bottom line for readers and how to treat the claim

Treat the Thatcher attribution as the dominant, well-attested popular attribution: major references and fact-checkers attribute the sentence to Margaret Thatcher and it is widely quoted that way ^{[1] [2]}. However, given that the provided sources are secondary and do not include an original, dated source demonstrating first use, present-day certainty about who “originally coined” the exact phrasing cannot be confirmed from the materials supplied (not found in current reporting).