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One of my currently favourite quotes: from Political Aspects of Full Employment (Michal Kalecki 1943)
One of the important functions of fascism, as typified by the Nazi system, was to remove capitalist objections to full employment.

The dislike of government spending policy as such is overcome under fascism by the fact that the state machinery is under the direct control of a partnership of big business with fascism.  The necessity for the myth of 'sound finance', which served to prevent the government from offsetting a confidence crisis by spending, is removed.  In a democracy, one does not know what the next government will be like.  Under fascism there is no next government.

The dislike of government spending, whether on public investment or consumption, is overcome by concentrating government expenditure on armaments.  Finally, 'discipline in the factories' and 'political stability' under full employment are maintained by the 'new order', which ranges from suppression of the trade unions to the concentration camp.  Political pressure replaces the economic pressure of unemployment.

When neoliberals look at this, they conclude that Keynesianism causes totalitarianism, as did Hayek in The Road to Serfdom. [From Wikipedia]
Significantly, Hayek challenged the general view among British academics that fascism was a capitalist reaction against socialism, instead arguing that fascism and socialism had common roots in central economic planning and the power of the state over the individual.



Economics is politics by other means
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Jun 13th, 2011 at 09:04:42 AM EST
[ Parent ]
man that hayak has a lot to answer for, for sure.

another perverse thinker that had such a destructive effect on history through paranoia...

from austria.

must be in the water... diary about the formation of political philosophy in austria's history? what thoughtstreams did these lunatics drink from to get to their erroneous conclusions?

DoDo?

perhaps geography has less to do with it than i think...

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Tue Jun 14th, 2011 at 03:18:49 PM EST
[ Parent ]
My guess would be the drastic collapse of the Habsburg Empire in 1918. Today's little Austria is a successor state to the Habsburg Empire that once led the German Empire, dominated Europe and spanned the New World.

Imagine if Great Britain had been soundly defeated in 1918 and forced not only to abandon its empire but to break up into Ireland (whole of), Scotland (to furthest extent and then some), Wales, Cornwall, and every little region with ambitions. Leaving London with a crippled little state, unable to even lord it over the neighbours, having to take orders from Edinbourgh or be the target of punishment expeditions.

How much hate, bile and longing for the old world would that little England produce?

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by A swedish kind of death on Thu Jun 16th, 2011 at 04:09:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Sounds nice, but "the Austrians" were a sect of liberals who had little to do with imperial nostalgia, and the development of their views as we know them today are probably not unaffected by their long-time residences and high standing in Anglo-Saxon countries.

It is also interesting to note that although the Austrians gathered at the university of Vienna, their godfather, Carl Menger, as well as leading figure Ludwig von Mises, came from Galicia (the part of Poland first grabbed by the Habsburgs, later by Stalin, and now part of the Ukraine).

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Thu Jun 16th, 2011 at 04:29:43 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Good thing it was just a guess then :)

Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se
by A swedish kind of death on Thu Jun 16th, 2011 at 04:34:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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