[Lizard_King]

Very interesting points, all of them. I will have to give them some serious thought. Thanks for the post.

[inquest]

The crucial premise that enters here is that the capitalist economy cannot be trusted to be self-regulating, as it previously had been.

What the Great Depression did was destroy a second kind of trust: that the economy would reliably deliver material goods without government intervention.

Anyone who is serious about getting rid of corporatism must explain how they are going to restore these two kinds of trust or persuade people to live without them.

Getting rid of "corporatism" as the author seems to have defined it, doesn't necessarily involve restoring the first kind of trust, at least not right away. Government regulation of commerce is not the same as government management of commerce, which seems to be the more pressing problem. As to the second kind, the way I'd begin to try to restore people's trust is to explain to them that the Depression was caused not by the free market, but by the inflationary policies of the feds, followed up by the havoc wrought upon the economy by many of FDR's hare-brained New Deal schemes. That should provide a start.

[Doug Loss]

I think the point he makes in the footnotes, that "corporatism" is a contemporary renaming of "fascism" (the economic system, not the buzzword for authoritarianism), is telling.

[Ohioan]

I was ready to pounce on this article, as having redefined National Socialism, until I came to the end, and saw that the writer has in effect tacitly admitted the point.

For the legal fallacies involved, I can cite no better source than The Constitution Of The United States. And for how to apply it, see A Constitutional Overview.

To rebut the economic fallacies involved, get hold of a copy of Ludwig Von Mises' classic Human Action, which specifically addresses all of the fallacious "isms" indicated. (For a brief rebuttal, see Economics & Common Sense.)

Basically, the writer has simply clothed the usual Socialist quackery in a few extra layers of rationalization. But Corporate quackery is no better than that advocated on behalf of any other special interest in the macro economy.

William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site

[AdamSelene235]

Excellent post. Its a nice summary of the Socialist base of our capitalist system.

Yep, we're free market capitalists alright. Well, except for our housing market. Oh, and the financial system. Oh and agriculture,education,scientific research,transportation,medicine,Social Security and basically anything else that matters.

[headsonpikes]

Essentially, he has recapitulated James Burnham's thesis in 'The Managerial Revolution', including surrendering to this apparently inevitable regime.

I say 'Nuts'!

[secretagent]

...government selectively lifts the burden of taxation and regulation on certain projects to push them into the black. It does this with tax abatements, loan guarantees, zoning changes, condemnations, outright subsidies, tax-exempt bond issues, exemption from regulations, and selective public infrastructure investments. As a result, only projects with political support can happen, and every skyscraper is a monument to the political deals that enabled it to get built.

Restrict and exempt, tax and subsidize.

Pressure and release, like milking a cow.

[rdb3]

What's surprising to me in this is that you are posting something from a "neocon" site like FrontPageMag.

Oh, my.

I only thought people who weren't "truly" conservative like myself set their homepage to FrontPageMag.com and actually read it and enjoy it.

Very interesting.