Fasci di Combattimento
In this case, Mussolini would bundle collectivism and power. He blamed capitalism, boom-and-bust cycles, class conflicts, wasteful competition, and profit-orientation. Does any of that sound familiar? It's the same message we've heard from the President and liberals over and over even as we have slogged through the worst post-recession recovery ever. I remember President Obama blasting boom and bust cycles and fretted that if we were to ever find a system that would stop them, let it at least be during a boom part.
Tomorrow night we will hear more about class conflict and suggestions that all hard work should receive the same pay even if it means a blow to profits. Make no mistake the economic aspects of fascism have always been popular with progressives.
FDR paid Mussolini a compliment, calling him and his economic program "honest purpose of restoring Italy," and once the New Deal was announced Mussolini repaid the admiration, calling it "boldly...interventionist in the field of economics." By the late 1930s, several other nations adopted the economic policies of fascism. Guess which nations thought capitalism wasn't good enough? Yes, you've got it: Greece, Spain and Portugal all picked up on the appeal of fascism and only later dumped it for socialism. Now Monti wants to take what's behind the door marked "F" for free markets.
He took his victory lap Friday saying it was the end of the "closed shop" mentality in professions, so now there will be more doctors and lawyers, and petrol station owners can choose who they purchase fuel from.
As one nation exits lingering vestiges of fascism, it appears America is ready to take the next step toward this compromise between socialism and Marxism. Sadly it's the other aspects of fascism that will stop the general media from connecting the dots to the goals of Elizabeth Warren and Nancy Pelosi. Those other aspects include totalitarian rule that focused on a society that bonded based on culture and blood. It promoted discipline through indoctrination and psychical education. Mostly it embraced violence to promote its agenda. Yet make no mistake, the economic goal is where Mussolini thought he would change the world. He died an ugly death, but his agenda lived on to contribute to the slow and ugly death of Italy's economy.
Now we see an administration that seeks to control indirectly through heavy regulations, rules and intimidation corporations. Industries that get the state's stamp of approval live on despite free market rejection. So we spend billions on solar and wind power that create scant jobs and no return on investment (which isn't the right word anyway). One definition of fascism said it was socialism with a capitalist veneer, which explains things like the Volt being pushed through with billions of dollars of taxpayer funds. It's like those public-private partnerships pushed so much at the beginning of the administration. Many were created and just simply became money pots for political bundlers.
I realize it's not in America's DNA, but the non-stop campaign against capitalism is working. In Italy, guilds were tolerated even as it was clear it was hurting the economy and anchoring the nation in a medieval world. Mostly, those that knew better accepted it as a third way between capitalism and socialism. There are those that think there should be something fairer than capitalism, and fascism offers a version of distribution that comes close to making things right. Of course opportunities to earn money are really fair, and jettisoning guilds in Italy was a major step in the right direction.
Letting government control wages through regulations or tax policy will not create opportunities but instead ruin upward mobility and the trail of prosperity it blazes in society.
Charles Payne
Wall Street Strategies