Disagree.
All families that function properly are authoritarian.
I wish I had my Keunnelt-Leddihn with me ... I'd quote him on the "experiment in democracy" taking place in American families (c. late 60's) that was such a dismal failure.
The family is the perfect relationship on which to draw the exact distinctions between equality and liberty which confuse so many people who mistakenly equate communism with Christianity or state-enforced altruism with the human virtue that is charity.
To call the family authoritarian and socialistic is to describe two facets of the same institution. To call the family authoritarian rather than socialistic is to confuse its distribution of power with its economics. There are authoritarian structures that are essentially capitalist -- Pinochet's Chile, Singapore, and organized crime come to mind -- so this is not a necessary association.
However, to be fair, authoritarian capitalisms seem to be unstable in the socialist direction, so there is room to argue the point just on the grounds of stability.
Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
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