Re: Racism


"Peter T. Daniels" <grammatim@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote...

John Atkinson wrote:
"Peter T. Daniels" <grammatim@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote...
> John Fry wrote:
>> "Peter T. Daniels" <grammatim@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>>
>> > The word "fascism" refers to the interpenetration of business >> > and
>> > government.
>>
>> By that definition, every country in the world is fascist.
>> Surely the word is not as useless as that?
>
> Even proudly libertarian New Zealand, and proudly socialist Sweden?

Well, both these countries have above-average interpenetration of
business and government.

Even back when Sweden was indeed "proudly socialist", she was famed for
her high level of consultation between government, big business, and big
labour. (But I bettter leave this one for those who know Sweden better
than me!)

And, could you explain the sense of the word "libertarian" that you're
using in describing NZ? Are you referring to the
welfare-and-subsidy-based NZ of the fifties and sixties, the neo-liberal
Rogernomic NZ of the eighties, or Helen Clark's NZ of today?

Well, I've never heard of Helen Clark, so presumably NZ got its
reputation from Rogernomics, whatever that is. Sure looks like a calque
on "Reaganomics" -- what G. H. W. Bush called "voodoo economics" during
the 1980 Republican primary election campaign.

It sure does. Do you know when the term "Reaganomics" was first used? It was invented by shock jock Paul Harvey, a big Reagan supporter, but I haven't been able to find out when. If it was in fact current back in 1981 when Reagan first started, then it's indeed likely that "Rogernomics" is a calque on it, rather than the other way around. (Roger Douglas became Finance Minister in 1983, and his reform package became law in 1984. It was followed by "Ruthenasia" in the nineties.) There were significant differences between Reagan's and Douglas's schemes, but both involved tax cuts for the rich, so one can see why one might have been named for the other.

John.

.

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