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HOW IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CAN THIS HAPPEN?
THIS IS A PRIVATE BUSINESS NOT A GOVERNMENT ENTITY
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Ah, but therein lies the rub:
Obama can have it both ways by ordering Chrysler to jump through flaming hoops because they were daft enough to take government money; but if business owners are hurt he can hide from responsibility by claiming it is a dispute between two private parties.
Hey! This is interesting:
The central economic idea of all forms of fascism is corporatism. Corporatism is government control of the economy by cartelizing it, that is, by selecting favored firms in an industry. These favoured firms fix prices and create barriers to entry and obstacles for competitors, and by controlling which firms have corporate rights. The government thereby maintains a level of power over the economy.
The most important claim made by fascism was that it alone could offer the creative prospect of a 'third way' between capitalism and socialism. Hitler, in Mein Kampf, spoke enthusiastically about the 'National Socialist corporative idea' as one which would eventually 'take the place of ruinous class warfare'; whilst Mussolini, in typically extravagant fashion, declared that 'the Corporative System is destined to become the civilization of the twentieth century. - The Fascism Reader by Aristotle A. Kallis.[20]
Fascists explicitly promoted their ideology as a "Third Position" between capitalism and communism.[127] Italian Fascism involved corporatism, a political system in which economy is collectively managed by employers, workers and state officials by formal mechanisms at national level. [128] Fascists advocated a new national multi-class economic system that is labeled as either national corporatism, national socialism or national syndicalism.[17] Common aim of all fascist movements was elimination of the autonomy or, in some cases, the existence of large-scale capitalism.[129]
Fascist governments exercised influence over the economy differently than that of communist-led states, in that individual private property was controlled but not nationalized.[130] Nevertheless, like the Soviet Union, fascist states pursued economic policies to strengthen state power and spread ideology, such as consolidating trade unions to be state or party-controlled.[131] Attempts were made by both Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany to establish "autarky" (self-sufficiency) through significant economic planning, but both failed to make the two countries self-sufficient.[132]
[edit] National corporatism, national socialism and national syndicalism
While fascists support the unifying of proletariat workers to their cause along corporatistic, socialistic, or syndicalistic lines, fascists specify that they advocate a nationalized form of such economic systems such as corporatism, national socialism, or national syndicalism which promotes the creation of a strong proletarian nation, but not a proletarian class.[133] Fascists also make clear that they have no hostility to the petite bourgeoisie (lower middle-class) or to small businesses and promise these groups protection alongside the proletariat from the upper-class bourgeoisie, big business, and Marxism. The promotion of these groups is the source of the term 'extremism of the centre' to describe fascism.[134] Fascism blames capitalist liberal democracies for creating class conflict and in turn blames communists for exploiting class conflict.[135] In Italy, the Fascist period presided over the creation of the largest number of state-owned enterprises in Western Europe such as the nationalization of petroleum companies in Italy into a single state enterprise called the Italian General Agency for Petroleum (Azienda Generale Italiani Petroli, AGIP).[136]
Fascists made populist appeals to the middle class (especially the lower middle class) by promising to protect small business and small property owners from communism, and by promising an economy based on competition and profit while pledging to oppose big business.[137]
On economic issues, Benito Mussolini in 1933 declared Italian Fascism's opposition to "decadent capitalism" that he claimed prevailed in the world at the time, but did not denounce capitalism entirely. Mussolini claimed that capitalism had degenerated in three stages, starting with dynamic or heroic capitalism (1830-1870) followed by static capitalism (1870-1914) and then reaching its final form of decadent capitalism, also known as supercapitalism beginning in 1914.[138] Mussolini argued that Italian Fascism was in favour of dynamic and heroic capitalism for its contribution to industrialism and technical developments but claimed that it did not favour supercapitalism, which he claimed was incompatible with Italy's agricultural sector.[139] Thus Mussolini claimed that Italy under Fascist rule was not capitalist in the modern use of the term which referred to supercapitalism.[140] Mussolini denounced supercapitalism for causing the "standardization of humankind" and for causing excessive consumption.[141] Mussolini claimed that at this stage of supercapitalism "[it] is then that a capitalist enterprise, when dificultires arise, throws itself like a dead weight into the state's arms. It is then that state intervention begins and becomes more necessary. It is then that those who once ignored the state now seek it out anxiously."[142] Mussolini went on to claim that Fascism was the next logical step to solve the problems of supercapitalism and claimed that this step could be seen either as a form of capitalism or socialism which involved state intervention, saying "our path would lead inexorably into state capitalism, which is nothing more nor less than state socialism turned on its head. In either event, [whether the outcome be state capitalism or state socialism] the result is the bureaucratization of the economic activities of the nation."[143]
The Nazis initially attempted to form a corporatist economic system like that in Fascist Italy, and created the National Socialist Institute for Corporatism in May 1933, which included many major economists who argued that corporatism was consistent with National Socialism.[144][145]. In Mein Kampf, Hitler spoke enthusiastically about the "National Socialist corporative idea" as one which would eventually "take the place of ruinous class warfare"[146] However, the Nazis later believed that corporatism was not beneficial to Germany because they deemed that it institutionalized and legitimized social differences within the German nation and instead the Nazis went on to promote economic organizations that emphasized the biological unity of the German national community.[147]
[edit] Economic planning
Fascists opposed laissez-faire economic policies dominant in the era prior to the Great Depression.[148] After the Great Depression began, many people from across the political spectrum blamed laissez-faire capitalism for the Great Depression, and fascists promoted their ideology as a "third way" between capitalism and communism.[149] Fascists declared their opposition to finance capitalism, interest charging, and profiteering.[150] Nazis and other anti-Semitic fascists, considered finance capitalism a "parasitic" "Jewish conspiracy".[151] Fascist governments nationalized some key industries, managed their currencies and made some massive state investments.[citation needed] Fascist governments introduced price controls, wage controls and other types of economic interventionist measures.[152]
Other than nationalization of certain industries, private property was allowed, but property rights and private initiative were contingent upon service to the state.[153] For example, "an owner of agricultural land may be compelled to raise wheat instead of sheep and employ more labor than he would find profitable."[154] According to historian Tibor Ivan Berend, dirigisme was an inherent aspect of fascist economies.[155] The Labour Charter of 1927, promulgated by the Grand Council of Fascism, stated in article 7: "The corporative State considers private initiative, in the field of production, as the most efficient and useful instrument of the Nation", then goes on to say in article 9: "State intervention in economic production may take place only where private initiative is lacking or is insufficient, or when are at stakes the political interest of the State. This intervention may take the form of control, encouragement or direct management."[156]
Fascists thought that private property should be regulated to ensure that "benefit to the community precedes benefit to the individual."[157] They also introduced price controls and other types of economic planning measures.[152]
Fascism had Social Darwinist views of human relations and promoted "superior" individuals and saw people who were weak as being inferior.[158] In terms of economic practice, this meant promoting the interests of successful businesses while banning trade unions and other workers' organizations.[159] Benito Mussolini in his English autobiography in one section focused on the economy of the United States where he stated that he agreed with the capitalist notion held by Americans that profit should not be taken away from those who produced it from their own labour for any purpose, saying "I do not respect—I even hate—those men that leech a tenth of the riches produced by others".[160]
[edit] Social welfare
Benito Mussolini promised a "social revolution" that would "remake" the Italian people, which was only achieved in part.[161] The people who primarily benefited from Italian fascist social policies were members of the middle and lower-middle classes, who filled jobs in the vastly expanding government workforce, which grew from about 500,000 to a million jobs in 1930.[162] Health and welfare spending grew dramatically under Italian fascism, with welfare rising from 7% of the budget in 1930 to 20% in 1940.[163] A major success in social welfare policy in Fascist Italy was the creation of the Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro (OND) or "National After-work Program" in 1925. The OND was the state's largest recreational organizations for adults.[164] The Dopolavoro was responsible for establishing and maintaining 11,000 sports grounds, over 6,400 libraries, 800 movie houses, 1,200 theatres, and over 2,000 orchestras.[164] Membership in the Dopolavoro was voluntary but had high participation because of its nonpolitical nature.[164] It is estimated that by 1936 the OND had organized 80% of salaried workers.[165] Nearly 40% of the industrial workforce had been recruited into the Dopolavoro by 1939 and the sports activities proved popular with large numbers of workers. The OND had the largest membership of any of the mass Fascist organizations in Italy.[166] The enormous success of the Dopolavoro in Fascist Italy was the key factor in Nazi Germany creating its own version of the Dopolavoro, the Kraft durch Freude (KdF) or "Strength through Joy" program of the Nazi government's German Labour Front, which was even more successful than the Dopolavoro.[167] KdF provided government-subsidized holidays for German workers.[168] KdF was also responsible for the creation of the original Volkswagen ("People's Car") that was a state-made automobile that was meant to be cheap enough to allow all German citizens to be able to own one.
While fascists promote social welfare for ameliorating negative economic conditions that are affecting their nation or race as whole, they do not support social welfare for egalitarian reasons. Fascists abhor egalitarianism for preserving the weak; they promote social Darwinist views and claim that nations and races must preserve and promote their strengths to ensure survival in a world that is in a perpetual state of national and/or racial conflict and competition.[169][170][171][172] Adolf Hitler was opposed to egalitarian and universal social welfare because, in his view, it encouraged the preservation of the degenerate and feeble.[173] While in power, the Nazis created social welfare programs to deal with the large numbers of unemployed. However, those programs were neither egalitarian nor universal, but instead residual, as they excluded multiple minority groups and certain other people whom they felt were incapable of helping themselves, and who would pose a threat to the future health of the German people.[174]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FascismDo I think Obama woke-up one day and said, "Today, I am a fascist!"?
No.
But I do think he
misguidedly* believes in national-corporatism/syndicalism (read: regulation/economic interventionism) to address perceived social evils of a free-market. However, once those free markets start to push-back he will be tested to either abrogate more of the law or watch his pet theories disintergrate. If he fights for his theories he will become more and more tyrannical.
Let's hope he is every ounce the puss-wad we believe him to be.
* Never subscribe to malice what can be explained by mere stupidity. --William F Buckley
