That is not fascism, it is feudalism. Feudalism prevails throughout much of Latin
America, often with American assistance, and is every bit as much an enemy of
freedom and democracy as Communism.
Amen ... clearly you have experienced this and a few others present have not.
There's just no better word to describe it than 'feudalism' ... it certainly has nothing to do with the ideals of 'free enterprise' as presented by the narrowly anti-communist types ... an example, from the relatively free country of M‚xico - a friend of mine operates a cantina, and is a member of an informal group of cantineros from his region. About seven years ago they were interested in setting up a mini-brewery, they even had a retired austrian Braumeister who has a winter home in the area to supervise it. Financing would have been no problem, they had considerable local support for permitting, etc [of a building one member already owned] ... But they were informed in no uncertain terms that they would be heavily regulated [and taxed, but they knew about the taxes in advance] ... regulated well beyond anything reasonable - they would have had to pay full costs of constant ministry supervision of the operation ... this was stated one-on-one to two of them in such a way as to discourage them from even thinking about it, with more than a hint of a threat ... there are only three firms in the country which brew beer, and they are powerful [they're also not regulated quite like that] ... this happens in possible the most free major latino country, and is not likely much better today, imho ... and this Fox won't likely change it completely either, even if he actually tries ... it's in the culture, ingrained [along with an urge to fight it - a dichotomy i can only observe, not explain]. |
