Free Florida Corporatism?

This is a short essay on why a Free Florida would succeed and prosper under corporatism, as well as, how this ideology (or system of government) would greatly improve Florida’s economy. Corporatism has existed in many nations, and this brief primer on corporatism and Florida will illustrate why and how it should be embraced in an independent Sunshine State.

The common misconception of corporatism is that it leads to Big Business controlling the government. Today, our plutocratic elite are unethical members of the capitalist class and work together to extract the nation of all its wealth. They call their organizations “corporations,” and so the term corporatism is associated with it (while in reality the ideology is the exact opposite of our current system). Corporatism can accurately be described as, “Corporatism, best put, is a system of representation that subordinates all the interests of society to the nation as a whole. In other words, both capital and labor are made to work for the whole, and not for themselves.” Historically, this has been the implementation of corporatism, particularly in nations like Italy, Portugal, and Germany.

Corporatism can be boiled down to the idea that the state (or nation) is like the body, and each part of it is an organ or appendage. So, if the workers are the hands and the business owners are the eyes, you would not gouge out an eye to spite the hand. Corporatism actually encourages pragmatic, class collaboration – unlike Marxism and unscrupulous, crony capitalism, which pits the classes against each other. It splits up the economy into its parts and, in that way, creates a version of indirect democracy. People vote based on their jobs, instead of their geography. In short: it forms occupational trade associations like guilds, unions, and labor courts.

Florida’s economy is the 15th largest in the world (if it were independent). We have a huge tourist and agricultural industry, and we could be a big player on the world stage. The tourism industry has an economic impact of $67 billion on Florida’s economy. As an independent state, Floridians could use this money to better their own nation, instead of paying off other States’ debts. Like Canada and maple syrup, we have oranges. And, Florida produces 40% of the world’s juice supply. Assuming we would take over the American Empire’s aerospace program, we would have a massive aerospace economy that creates thousands of Florida jobs. The greater Walt Disney World Resort has 70,000 employees. According to Disney, that’s the largest number of people employed by one company, in a single location, anywhere in the United States. This would greatly help a new Floridian nation. Our largest export is meat, so we can use all this excess wealth to better Florida and her people. Most of our land is farmland, so we can set up syndicates in Florida for farming jobs helping our younger population. We already have economic sectors of an independent republic – Florida can be strong and healthy without the federal government sucking out our wealth and hurting our people.

As with the former Italian corporate state, that previous system set up many privileges that did not exist beforehand (including many things we take for granted today, it also included benefits we don’t even have today). For example, in every factory (whether industrial, private, government-controlled, or State-owned) representatives of technicians and workers collaborated closely – to the point of having direct knowledge of the factory’s management – in setting fair wages and distributing profits between reserve funds, stockholder dividends, and worker profit shares. In this way, Italy’s old corporatism demonstrated the collaboration of workers and the employers to have an agreement that worked for everyone involved. 

They also had a system that involved agriculture: if you were a deficient or neglectful farmer, it could be seized by the State and appropriated to citizens who would put it to better use. The average farm in Florida is 205 acres, no doubt much of this land is not used to its greatest extent. Additionally, Big Ag (or the massive, commercial producers) are typically opposed to small farming, engage in unethical business practices, have incredible lobbying power, and their hiring practices often exclude Heritage Americans for cheap, foreign labor. A State (Florida) advocating for its own people, would serve its citizenry by intervening. For example, promoting small farming and homesteading could be utilized to popularize a return to agrarianism, as well as, diminish urban over-population (and urbanite political power). Floridians need to reconnect to their home soil.

How would Florida work in the corporate system? Under corporatism, employers and employees will be organized into syndicates, each syndicate obtains elected representatives from their particular industry and occupation. These two syndicates will then be tied together under a central organ titled a “Corporation” – hence the name, corporatism. How does it work? If you were an electrician, you would be under the corporation with either construction or possibly a subdivision dealing with the specifics of your trade. And you would vote in your organization, the workers and the owners would work together in economic activity, and the profits from that economic activity would be split three ways: the workers, the business owners, and the State. The State would only interject in the event that arbitration was required between the workers and business owners. The local syndicates would build upon each other and merge into confederations. Furthermore, these syndicates and corporations would not supersede the nation, Florida.

Many things could be fixed in this system, such as wages and many of the problems in our modern capitalistic arrangement. We would be able to nationalize greedy businesses that are holding Florida back, such as Duke Energy Florida, and businesses that extract Florida’s wealth i.e., Mosaic which is buying up our resources and destroying our nature.

This system will bring job growth and economic security. Labor courts will ensure jobs pay well, and you will be able to survive off your job, unlike the current system which promotes debt slavery. There are many things we can fix and simplify with corporatism. Hopefully, it can find prominence in the future for a free, truly free, Florida.

-By Baron Pinellas