Rick Kelo - Pricing in Fascist Economies

Fascism is one of the two forms of Command Economy (the other being Socialism).  In his studies of economics Rick Kelo noticed that the price of consumer goods - the individual items that you and I buy at the store - are usually not controlled by the State.

Rick Kelo, a Chicago Tax Recruiter

"There have been a great many command economies where the State did not set the price of consumption goods.  Nazi Germany is one example as is the USSR through the majority of it's history, ignoring several lesser periods of price controls," Kelo remarks.

The price of consumption goods does not matter.  Not economically in any event.  In any command economy, whether socialist or fascist, there can never be rational pricing for consumer goods.  In Fascist economies State officials often tell the business owners what to produce.  Some times they do it directly by an order, and other times indirectly by a regulation that sets a production quota not to be exceeded.  However, business owners in a fascist economy can still look to other market economies for guides on pricing.  But, they can never actually know the proper price for consumer goods because they have no pricing for the capital goods that were used to make those consumer items.

It is because of the absence of a rational pricing mechanism, Richard Kelo feels, that we frequently see state-mandated prices for consumer goods in command economies.

Rick Kelo Explains the Command Economies

There are two forms of command economies: fascism & socialism.  Command economy shouldn't imply socialist economy necessarily.  All socialist economies are command economies, but not that all command economies are socialist.  The presence of a Command Economy is irrelevant to the form of political organization as well, it by definition refers only to the form of economic organization.

The main point of confusion for some occurs in separating political systems from economic ones.  A country can have a totalitarian political system and a free market economy.  It's not terribly common but there's nothing about having a free market economy that requires political freedom.  However, in reverse it is necessary to have economic freedom in order to have political freedom.  Rick Kelo teaches that a country cannot have a command economy and have political freedom because the very imposition of a command economy requires an absence of political freedom in order to impose.

For example how can their be freedom of the press when the government owns the presses?

Richard Kelo