Laissez faire -- fascism?

Question

Now, for a long time I've been confused by the claim that free markets lead to fascism. I realize that laissez faire leads to more power in the hands of the wealthy. I know that such a system creates worsening conditions for the working classes, e.g. Late 19th/ Early 20th centuries in the U.S. By empowering the rich, corruption inevitably spreads through the government through corporate lobbying. My question is: what does this have to do with fascism? Isn't this more oligarchical?

joel_vannatta · Accepted Answer

Sadly, people that say such things have no idea what fascism really was. Any political philosophy they disagree with, they brand as fascism.

I am a conservative who generally votes republican and I have no problem seeing plenty of room for government regulation to curb the excesses of business as long as it doesnt go too far. The advent of the 20th century saw the government doing a lot of good in reigning in the trusts and monopolies that had gained too much power.

while I think the government needs to do more to control the trusts and monopolies of today, the current economic downturn is not the fault of business. For fifty or more years, Americans have had a choice between American made and foreign made products. We have consistantly chosen to stab the American worker in the back by buying the overseas product, (made by workers earning $50 a month.)

In the 1970s, the AT&T monopoly, (MA BELL) was broken up into a dozen baby bell companies, these have now recombined into two or three companies, these need to be broken up again and prevented from recombining.

We now have a handful of banking companies that bcontrol the banking industry nationwide. These need to be broken up and prohubited from recombining. If a company is "too big to fail," then it is too big and needs to be divided into smaller, separate companies.

I believe firmly in free trade, but like ANY freedon, it is not unlimited.

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Laissez faire --> fascism?

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