Via Sy Mukherjee, Whole Foods CEO drops a political theory bomb on the NPR audience, debunking the myth that the Affordable Care Act is a form of socialism and instead noting that it’s fascism:
Technically speaking, it’s more like fascism. Socialism is where the government owns the means of production. In fascism, the government doesn’t own the means of production, but they do control it, and that’s what’s happening with our healthcare programs and these reforms.
Indeed. To many of us, the objectionable quality of fascism had to do with the elimination of political democracy, violent suppression of political dissent, decision to plunge the world into war, and massive genocide. But it is true that fascist governments also favored regulation of private businesses to advance certain public policy goals. Adolf Hitler was also known for his use of expansionary fiscal and monetary policy to revive the depressed German economy, so in a sense you could say Eric Rosengren is the real fascist around these parts. It’s all a question of perspective.
