Facism is a form of collectivism. Fascism is a form of socialism.
What we see, are very rich and powerful people using government bailouts and regulations in order to enrich themselves and control the means of production. We might think, "Oh, he's rich, he must be an evil capitalist who is exploiting the poor" but that would be wrong. People like Soros and or the guys at Goldman Sachs are socialists who are rich and exploiting the poor.
The problem is, the Left likes people like the Kennedy's or John Kerry or Nancy Pelosi (all Fascists who use the government and exploit the poor) and pretends that these stalwart warriors are fighting the evil capitalists (Buffett, Soros, Bill Gates). Well, everybody I named is a Leftist. They're all on the same team.
The top 1% is making out really well -- and they hate capitalism. Capitalism allows real competition by real people -- the folks who are already at the top of the heap don't like that idea. With Fascism, they all get to play the game with a stacked deck. They like that just fine.
I’ve been re-reading some old economics texts recently. What the heck, they’re great bedtime reading.
Anyway, Smith describes mercantilism pretty well. What I think we have today is a perverse form of mercantilism, where it is sort of turned inside-out.
The same people benefit, however, and they access the same levels of government to do their bidding as in Smith’s mercantile examples.
That's only true of some of the top 1% (and is also true a lot of slime who are below that level but who also benefit from what economists call rent-seeking behavior). We need to break the Political Class and realign the rules of capitalism to ensure that those in top 1% deserve every penny.
Sachs is a moron. Raising taxes only strengthens the hold of the Political Class.