Sunday, August 24, 2008
The Trains are running on time
An awful lot of the left-leaning criticism of our current system is that we have become corporatist, coddling and protecting companies at the expense of individuals. They believe corporatism leads to fascism.
There's some truth to that. I think the mess we've gotten into with Fannie and Freddie is a symptom of corporatism. What so many fail to realize is that it's even easier to approach this sort of fascism from the left.
Can you imagine if the government here decided to tell you when and how much you could work and produce in a vain attempt to show clean air to the world?
Maybe Tim Noah was wrong. We do need Jonah Goldberg's book. As I said in the linked post:
The real point is that social engineers, imperialist and racists need the coercive power of government to realize their plans. That way lies the Road to Serfdom. It is certainly not a road paved with free markets and individual rights. From an ideological perspective, the latter are the only reliable contra-fascist indicators. Ideologies that subordinate these principles hazard becoming fascist.
6 Comments:
By 
, at
Sun Aug 24, 10:46:00 AM:
Like most Marxists, Obama thinks getting the trains to run on time is a great thing, even though trains are an overpriced, slow, and inflexible means of moving people, because trains allow the government to dictate to the people when and where they may go.
By 
Punditarian, at
Sun Aug 24, 01:05:00 PM:
"corporatism" does not mean a society organized to benefit incorporated joint-stock companies.
"corporatism" is a left wing form of statist organization.
"corporatism" means a society conceived of as a single body "corpus" in which there is a defined head, and defined limbs which carry out the instructions of the head.
The "corporations" into which individuals are organized in a "corporatist" society are labor unions, guilds, professional societies, workplace organizations, and so on. In such a "corporatist" society, political power flows to and from these "corporations" from and to the State.
The workers's Soviets were classically corporatist entities.
Fascist economies are corporatist. Communist economies are corporatist, too, although under communism, the only "corporation" that ultimately matters is the Party.
As you note, a free market is the opposite of a corporatist state.
By , at
Sun Aug 24, 03:12:00 PM:
The real point is that social engineers, imperialist and racists need the coercive power of government to realize their plans.
Those writing the tax codes qualify too, whatever the agenda.
By Georg Felis, at
Sun Aug 24, 04:09:00 PM:
I'm just glad I work in Agriculture, where the government would never tell us when and how much we could work and produce.
Oh, wait...
By Charles Edward Frith, at
Sun Aug 24, 09:29:00 PM:
I live in Beijing and the 'free markets' are going to ensure we go back to polluted air. I'd like a bit of old school Marxism as money isn't the only pursuit in life.
By Dawnfire82, at
Sun Aug 24, 10:54:00 PM:
It was my understanding that in Marxism, economics and one's economic class drove everything.
And I find it kind of funny that you use Beijing (you know, Red China) as an example of 'free markets.'
