From Sheldon Richman's Concise Encyclopedia of Economics [h/t Steve McCann]:
"As an economic system, fascism is socialism with a capitalistic veneer. In its day (the 1920's and 1930's), fascism was seen as the happy medium between boom-and-bust-prone capitalism, with its alleged class conflict, wasteful competition, and profit-oriented egoism, and Marxism, with its violent socially divisive prosecution of the bourgeoisie.
Where socialism abolished all market relations outright, fascism left the appearance of market relations while planning all economic activities. Where socialism abolished money and prices; fascism controlled the monetary system and set all prices and wages politically.
Under fascism, the state, through official agencies, controlled all aspects of manufacturing, commerce, finance, and agriculture. Licensing was ubiquitous; no economic activity could be undertaken without government permission. Levels of consumption were dictated by the state, and "excess" incomes had to be surrendered as taxes or "loans".
To maintain high employment and minimize popular discontent, fascist governments also undertook massive public-works programs financed by steep taxes, borrowing and fiat money creation."
At 7:00, we listed many (but certainly not all) of the ways we fit that definition of economic fascism today, from licensing (1 in 3 Americans need permission from the state to do their job), public works, NLRB, auto-bailouts, the Buffet rule, debt ceiling crisis, federal reserve, ObamaCare, tax increases, etc x 3.
Do you think we have a fascist economic system today? Leave your answer below!
http://media.worldnow.com/kfmbam/podcast/the_mike_slater_show_5446.mp3
Ayn Rand in Atlas Shrugged:
"When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion (ObamaCare) -- When you see that in order to produce, you need permission from men who produce nothing (licensing) -- When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors (Solyndra, GE) -- When you see that men get richer by graft and pull than by hard work (GM, Chrysler), and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you (education monopoly) -- When you see corruption being rewarded (unions) and honesty becoming self-sacrifice (Buffet Tax)-- You may know your society is doomed."
In 1933, the New York Times wrote that the atmosphere in Washington was "strangely reminiscent of Rome in the first weeks after the march of the Blackshirts, of Moscow at the beginning of the Five-Year Plan [Mussolini's rise to power].…America today literally asks for orders." The Roosevelt administration, "envisages a federation of industry, labor and government after the fashion of the corporative State as it exists in Italy."
And Mussolini said that FDR's New Deal was, "boldly...interventionist in the field of economics."
Fascism could never happen here right?
THE question of the election is, in the words of Mark Steyn:
"Is the United States a republic of limited government with a presumption in favor of individual liberty? Or is it just like any other western nation in which a permanent political class knows what's best for its subjects?"
Or as Reagan put it:
"Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves."
This is the question of every election. In 2008, we chose poorly. But we get another shot at it!
Why is liberty so hard to take back? Murray Rothbard called it the Status Quo Bias. We can't possibly NOT have the state run education, healthcare, insurance, garbage collection, landfills... ... ... ... ... because the state has ALWAYS run these thing! Right?
Imagine that for the last 20 years there has been a Federal Department of Shoes, and then you called for shoe privatization. It's not hard to imagine the criticisms you would receive. We laid it out at 8:00 (using Federal Air Traffic Control as a real life example):
http://media.worldnow.com/kfmbam/podcast/the_mike_slater_show_5447.mp3
Frederic Bastiat, The Law, 1850:
"Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain."
