From Wikipedia

“In the economic sphere, many fascist leaders have claimed to support a “Third Way” in economic policy, which they believed superior to both the rampant individualism of unrestrained capitalism and the severe control of state communism. This was to be achieved by establishing significant government control over business and labour (Mussolini called his nation’s system “the corporate state”).”

My right wing friends cannot resist the characterization of Obama as a socialist. He overtly talks of the need to redistribute the wealth and as such may fit the description, but we have been redistributing the wealth for some time. We have one of the most progressive tax systems in the world; the richest 10% pay 55% of the taxes and the poorest 20% pay only 4%. Obama may desire to make our system even more progressive or socialistic, but it is hard to claim that at a 36% top bracket we are capitalistic but at 40% we are socialistic.

What is clearly different under this president is the unprecedented encroachment into the business world. Bush reacted to the financial crisis with huge sums to support the credit markets and it was probably necessary as much as it violates my sense of the proper role of government. Part of this was caused by the government guarantees through Fannie Mae and part was caused by the absurd financial products comprising debt instruments so complicated no one could reasonably value them.

But under Obama this ‘control’ of the banking and financial industry has expanded to control or actual ownership of a large part of the auto industry, insurance industry, the health care industry, and the energy industry through the pending cap and trade legislation. The strongly pro union card check bill, even when restoring the secret ballot, includes provisions to force arbitration if a contract is not signed 60 days after a successful election, allowing a federal bureaucrat to dictate wage and terms to a private company. The president has stepped over the law to dictate union benefits in the auto bankruptcy proceeding. This is a form of corporatism that we have not seen since Mussolini’s Italy.

Mussolini also had financial crisis as an excuse. He was also supported by progressive elites both in Europe and in the United States. It was a decade later that fascism became more synonymous with racial and Anti-Semitic policies.

Fascist is pejorative and sounds extreme, but perhaps the word ‘corporatism’ relays the same message. The fact that ‘corporatism’ is the central economic policy of fascism conveys that the government takes extreme control over economic freedom. Either word is a more accurate description of Obama’s policies than mere socialism.

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