What IS Fascism?
[and where will you find it?]
There are three fundamentally different political/economic systems:
Freedom: The State’s functions are restricted to defense, and the prosecution of those who violate other people’s rights by initiating force.
Communism: The State owns and controls everything. Including your life. And . . .
Fascism: While most businesses are privately owned, the State controls everything via regulations and similar interventions.
Fascism comes in two forms:
The totalitarian version: Hitler’s Germany, Mussolini’s Italy, Franco’s Spain, and Peron’s Argentina. The state of a State which is fundamentally much the same as communism. Or:
The “soft” version: where most businesses are privately owned—but controlled, regulated, supervised, and directed by the State.
The “Regulatory State”
Since the foundation of the American republic in 1789, the US Congress has passed over 30,000 statutes, an average of 180 new laws per year.
That seems like a lot. But it pales by comparison to the number of regulations: in just the 22 years from 1995 to 2016, federal agencies in the US issued 88,899 new regulations.
An incredible 7,400 new regulations per year!
And that’s not counting the laws and regulations passed by state governments and city councils.
All to the benefit of those people who staff regulatory agencies. Every regulatory body is effectively a law unto itself, a mini-dictatorship which has little to no supervision or restraint.
So giving governments control of almost every “private” activity.
So meeting the “soft” version of fascism. Leading inexorably to the conclusion that most every country whose citizens believe they are free are, in reality, living in a “soft fascist” State composed of multiple mini-dictatorships.
Hardly a definition of freedom.
Especially when laws and regulations rarely go away.
And many are simply absurd:
For example, it's illegal to enter Britain's parliament wearing a suit of armor.
According to a law passed in 1313 AD!
712 years ago!!
While in New Hampshire, USA, if you cut your own hair or somebody else’s without a license you could go to jail for one year. Or if you’re lucky, just pay a $2,000 fine.
Good for hairdressers. But not so hot for you or me.
Plus:
— In Brisbane, Australia, failing to wave a “thank you” when another driver allows you to merge into his/her lane is a fineable offence
— In Florida it’s illegal to pass wind in a public place after 6pm on Thursdays
— While in Jamaica, Saudi Arabia, and Barbados, it is illegal to dress in camouflage clothing.
All to the benefit of those people who staff regulatory agencies. Every regulatory body is effectively a law unto itself, a mini dictatorship which has little to no supervision or restraint.
So it’s quite logical for me (and you!) to be an optimist at heart. But in the real world there’s far more for both of us to be pessimistic about.
And: the “Separation of Powers” . . . ?
In theory (as erroneously taught in political science courses) the structure of the American government is based on the separation of the three basic functions of government: the executive, the congress or parliament, and the judiciary into three separate and complementary institutions.
Supposedly.
This was certainly the case in the early days of the American Republic.
Until 1887 when Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act, making the railroads the first industry subject to federal regulation. The first of today’s 438 federal regulatory agencies.
Unlike the separate institutions of the executive, congress, and judicial, the regulatory agencies are not subject to the “Separation of Powers” doctrine. But combine all three. In other words, a regulatory agency makes the rules (which have equal status with the laws passed by congress), enforces them, and adjudicates disputes.
Which makes them, in effect, mini-dictatorships.
Consider this example from a friend of mine who was (many moons ago) an independent director of an American company.
For some unknown reason the SEC decided it didn’t like the chairman and owner of this company. So it burrowed into the company’s records and found an issue that broke some regulation or another.
Given the incredible (and mushrooming) number of regulations it’s rarely difficult to find something a company (or you!) is breaching.
The trial took place not in a normal law court but in the SEC’s court. Where the result was essentially a forgone conclusion.
With the result that the company’s owner (and managing director) was banned from being a director for life. And the SEC tried to grab his house in “compensation.”
Thoughtfully, he’d put the house in his wife’s name, so protecting it from SEC’s “grab” attempt.
Otherwise, he and his family would now be homeless.
A fate that could, conceivably, be anyone’s.
Imagine you’re sitting on a pile of cash. You can make that pile as small or as large as you like. Zillions come to mind no doubt.
I have an important question for you:
What’s purchasing power of that pile of cash going to be worth tomorrow? Or next year?
Your answer depends on where you live.
And when.
One thing I’m positive about: the chances of those zillions going up in purchasing power a year from now are so close to zero it’s hardly worth considering.
But . . .
There are (or should I say, were) occasional exceptions.
Once upon a time in a land not so far away . . .
If you could simply sit on your cash and watch your purchasing power grow from one day to the next. Imagine that!
But it seems impossible.
Especially these days (and decades!) when inflation means that sitting on your cash decreases its purchasing power.
There was such a period: in the United States from the end of the Civil War in 1865 to the beginning of the 20th century.
Bank interest rates in the US range between 1% (for deposits of $5,000 and under) to 3% for $100,000 or more.
Compare that to the current inflation rate of 2.7%. CALCULATE
Seems like you’d come out on top if you had a hundred grand plus.
Except for one thing:
Taxes!
Interest, needless to say, is income for tax purposes.
https://www.irs.gov/filing/federal-income-tax-rates-and-brackets
Rates start at 10% (for $1 and up) to 37% for $640,601 or more.
Waaaay above the inflation rate even if you’ve only got $1 in the bank!
What IS Fascism?
The simplest way to understand the differences between communism and fascism is to compare the economic structure of the Soviet Union with Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy.
The structure of communism is simple to understand: the State controls everything.
Or to put it another way: if the State does not permit it, it’s banned. And you’d probably get sent to the Gulag if you did it.
Fascism and communism have several aspects in common. Both, for example are totalitarian dictatorships.
But while the communist State owns and controls everything, under Fascism some businesses are (supposedly) privately owned, but are actually totally controlled by the State.
So therefore the purpose of business owners and managers is primarily to satisfy the State. Satisfying customers is way down the bottom of their list of priorities.
Nazism is essentially Fascism—with the addition of Holocaust.
Except for one thing:
Taxes!
Interest, needless to say, is income for tax purposes.
Author: Mark Tier
Author of the bestelling The Winning Investment Habits of Warren Buffett & George Soros, Mark Tier was the founder of the investment newsletter World Money Analyst, which he published until 1991, the author of Understanding Inflation and The Nature of Market Cycles. Since 1991, he's helped start five new (and highly successful) investment publications. When he adopted the the winning investment habits of Warren Buffett & George Soros himself, he sold all his business interests and now lives solely from the returns on his investments. His most recent books including Trust Your Enemies, a political thriller which is “Up there with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” and “Worthy of Ayn Rand” according to reviews on Amazon.com, and Ayn Rand's 5 Surprisingly Simple Rules for Judging Political Candidates.