Back in USSR

This whole right-wing laissez-faire free-market inspired investment bank meltdown has me pretty scared. Not scared about what it will do to the economy, I believe we can bounce back from that, but scared about how it will drive the conversation in this country. Will everything suddenly be about the economy? Drunk driving? It's about the economy. The death penalty? It's about the economy. Health care? The Environment? National Security? They're all about the economy.
I remember that's how a lot of the nanny-laws got passed in the 80's: the effect on the economy. Seatbelt laws. Helmet laws. Smoking bans. They got passed because the backers of the laws successfully controlled the debate from one of freedom of choice, to one of economic necessity. "Look at how much seatbelt-less drivers are costing the economy each year!" They said, and people listened. I view this as an insidious creep against our personal freedoms: viewing everything others do in terms of how if affects you economically. It's now 'unconstitutional' to view it in religious, racial, gender, etc.. terms, but how does one protect against the claim that a Gay Pride Parade negatively affects the economic potential of a city because it creates a back-lash from the right against that city? Is hasn't happened yet, but I can see it soon.
Once civil rights and the economy are conflated, and the economic rights of a person become the paramount rights of the land, then the change from a Progressive and Free Democracy to a Oligarchical conservative quasi-fascist state that has been happening since the 80's will have become complete.
That's what scares me. Not the share price of my 401(k). Who gives a shit about retirement when one can see person freedoms and civil liberties shriveling under the pressure from an $11.6 trillion debt?
How did the great fascist governments of the 20th century come into power? Through the manipulation of the economic fears of its' people. Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, the USSR. I include the USSR as a facist country because under a fascist regime, the government and the corporations work hand in hand to prop up the power of the other, and in the USSR, the government WAS the corporation. Stain the ultimate CEO of the world's largest corpse factory, with DOW chemicals coming in a close second.