The Financial Times gave a so-called "economist" a platform to rebrand democracy or democratic socialism with a spicy new term: "anti-fascist economics."
Isabella Weber, director of the nonprofit Essential Economics gGmbH, sat down with FT's Martin Sandbu to discuss anti-fascist economics.
Weber explained:
"So at its core, it argues that fascism finds a fertile ground when there is large-scale economic insecurity and high levels of corporate concentration and private power in the economy.
So an anti-fascist economics is one that puts a floor under people's livelihoods and a ceiling on the concentration of private and corporate wealth."
Let's translate all that fancy academic talk:
- "A floor under people's livelihoods" suggests a safety net, minimum wages, or guaranteed access to essential services.
- "A ceiling on the concentration of private and corporate wealth" may suggest progressive taxation, wealth taxes, or antitrust measures. A cap on personal wealth would be more radical but not out of the question.
Weber's views go well beyond bolstering the West's failing welfare state. She now wants big government to reshape the economy in how essentials are produced and supplied, including building public housing.
The question that emerges is: who exactly decides what counts as essential, what constitutes an acceptable profit, and when an emergency intervention en
