I have long made the argument that fascism is socialism every bit as much as Communism. We Need a Deeper Understanding of Socialism, I’ve argued, and that A is A, and Socialism by any Other Name... is still socialism. Other theoretical thinkers, such as George Reisman, have said so also. But never, to my knowledge, has any prominent political leader.
Until now.
In a near-perfect pro-Capitalist speech before a world audience at Davos Switzerland, the World Economic Forum, Javier Milei, Argentina’s Radical Capitalist Leader, gave a speech that we rarely hear from the world’s leaders. In it, Milei documents socialism's many, and unavoidable, records of poverty and loss of individual freedom—and the continuing efforts to repeat socialism’s deadly ideas. Then, he explained why this is once again happening right under our noses:
Fortunately, there are more and more of us [“libertarians”] who are daring to make our voices heard, because we see that if we don’t truly and decisively fight against these [statsist] ideas, our fate entails increasing levels of regulation, socialism, and poverty, less freedom, and consequently, a worse quality of life.
The West has unfortunately already started to go along this path. I know, to many it may sound ridiculous to suggest that the West has turned to socialism, but it’s only ridiculous if you limit yourself to the traditional economic definition of socialism, which says that it’s an economic system where the state owns the means of production. This definition, in my view, should be updated in the light of current circumstances.
Today, states don’t need to directly control the means of production to control every aspect of the lives of individuals. With tools such as printing money, debt, subsidies, controlling the interest rate, price controls, and regulations to correct so-called market failures, they can control the lives and fates of millions of individuals.
This is how we come to the point where, by using different names or guises, a good deal of the generally accepted ideologies in most Western countries are collectivist variants, whether they proclaim to be communist, fascist, socialist, social democrat, national socialist, Christian democrat, neo-Keynesian, progressive, populist, nationalist, or globalist.
Ultimately, there are no major differences. They all say that the state should steer all aspects of the lives of individuals. They all defend a model contrary to the one [“free market Capitalism”] that led humanity to the most spectacular progress in its history. [my emphasis]
Kudos to Javier Milei for ripping off the veneer of slogans and labels socialists use to deflect us from their true totalitarian socialist designs.
Related Reading:
A is A, and Socialism by any Other Name...
We Need a Deeper Understanding of Socialism
Sanders' Brand of Socialism is Old Fashioned Fascism
Correcting Michael Coburn: Fascism and Marxian Socialism are Not, Fundamentally, Opposites
QUORA: ‘Is fascism a capitalist ideology?‘
Elizabeth Warren’s ‘Accountable Capitalism Act’ Reprises Benito Mussolini
Venezuela: From Stalin to Mussolini
Why Nazism Was Socialism and Why Socialism is Totalitarian—George Reisman for the Mises Institu
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