Nazi Germany: state-capitalist?

February 2025 Forums Events and announcements Nazi Germany: state-capitalist?

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  • #256486
    ZJW
    Participant

    I gave up going through the online Socialist Standard archives to see how the economy of nazi Germany was classified/analysed, but according to the following, it was largely state-capitalist (‘socialist’ in the parlance of these people):

    ‘It Wasn’t Capitalism: Mises Explains Nazi Economics’:
    https://mises.org/friday-philosophy/it-wasnt-capitalism-mises-explains-nazi-economics

    And note the mention in the introductory paragraph of a book, now already published.

    ‘Rainer Zitelmann, the foremost authority on Adolf Hitler’s economic policies, has fully confirmed Mises’s analysis in ‘Hitler’s National Socialism’ which will be published next month.’

    #256494
    robbo203
    Participant

    I see Baron von Mises makes the same mistake as the Trots make about the Soviet Union:

    “The German pattern of socialism (Zwangswirtschaft) [“compulsory economy”] is characterized by the fact that it maintains, although only nominally, some institutions of capitalism. Labor is, of course, no longer a “commodity”; the labor market has been solemnly abolished; the government fixes wage rates and assigns every worker the place where he must work. Private ownership has been nominally untouched. In fact, however, the former entrepreneurs have been reduced to the status of shop managers (Betriebsfuehrer). The government tells them what and how to produce, at what prices and from whom to buy, at what prices and from whom to sell. Business may remonstrate against inconvenient injunctions, but the final decision rests with the authorities.”

    Just because the market is regulated and is no longer a “free” market doesn’t mean that it is not still a market or that labour (power) is not still a commodity

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