Let’s review some politico-economic terms being recklessly flung around these days.
SOCIALISM is an authoritarian system where the government owns all major means of production and controls the marketplace with top-down central planning. Taxes are very high in order to enable the government to dispense the benefits it feels the people deserve. Being authoritarian, it generally doesn’t care what the people think, as long as they do what they are told.
FASCISM is a totalitarian system where the government does not own the means of production, but exercises full control over the private sector. Being totalitarian, the single approved Party uses the power and reach of businesses in order to enforce correct thinking, as well as correct behavior, of the people. No deviation from government-approved thought is permitted, and government power is weaponized by secret police to ensure conformity. Under Fascism, approved business owners become fabulously wealthy.
COMMUNISM is a totalitarian system where all property is owned and controlled by “The People,” meaning The State. There are no taxes, because no one owns any property with which to pay taxes. The State ruthlessly enforces correct behavior and thought, using secret police and domestic terrorism tactics. The single Party wields unlimited power, and Party members are fabulously wealthy. Individuality is forbidden, and instead people are referred to as faceless “masses.”
Take a moment to consider where we are today, and where we seem to be headed.
