[Secret Agent Man]

interesting.

this is exactly what fascism is all about.

fascism is socialism that keeps some amount of private business around, the percentage kept around can vary widely depending.

private business kept around is the useful idiot for fascist governments

when things go well, fascist government takes basically all the credit

when things go bad, fascist government blames certain businesses/industires/sectors for the problem(s), and usually nationalizes some of them

so government only gets praise, and the evil private corporations are the scapegoats when stuff goes wrong, and then they have some justification to take over some of those businesses, for whatever means they have planned

[metmom]

That sounds eerily familiar.