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Bush continues to embrace socialism

The Bush Administration is moving to nationalize banks:

The Bush administration is considering taking ownership stakes in certain U.S. banks as an option for dealing with a severe global credit crisis.

An administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because no decision has been made, said the $700 billion rescue package passed by Congress last week allows the Treasury Department to inject fresh capital into financial institutions and get ownership shares in return.

As Doug Mataconis put it, this is just another step on the road to serfdom.

Posted by Jason on October 9, 2008 11:41 AM |

Comments

The administration is leading us further into the depths of socialism by
proposing to buy stocks in companies thus givng the government a hand in a system that was intended to be free enterprise.

Posted by: The Doctor | October 11, 2008 08:10 PM

In fairness, this may not be socialism after all. Socialism generally describes any system wherein the government holds title to the means of production - e.g., by owning businesses of various kinds (banks are businesses too). A system of this ilk wherein the 'ownership' of the means of production is held or controlled primarily by the Executive branch is more accurately known as Fascism. Both are totalitarian approaches, but let's get the terminology correct, and give Mussolini the proper credit for deploying the archetypal model.

(Now, when obedience is no longer colored "patriotism"; when the class struggle replaces this current mode of class collaboration; when our government turns from its overriding ethos of statist nationalism and embraces the Pelosi model of world collectivism, I'll agree that we're socialist.)

What I find hilarious is that government ownership of the banks is supposed to somehow imbue the public with greater confidence. I haven't seen any polls on how "confident" the public is of the existing management of these banks, but I would hazard a guess that it is pretty low - though likely not as low as the 15% confidence level we currently have in our government! Considering the numbers, its entirely possible that our government is currently the least trusted institution in our society...but somehow banks will be trusted more once they are stamped with the government boot...the irony boggles the mind.

Posted by: The Night Rider | October 13, 2008 04:15 PM