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Eh. You are the one missing the point. “That Holocaust’s real awful, but the Nazi economic policies kicked ass!” is a common refrain you can hear from many, ma
by arrrg 13y ago
Eh. You are the one missing the point.
“That Holocaust’s real awful, but the Nazi economic policies kicked ass!” is a common refrain you can hear from many, many people. Those people are not talking about the Holocaust, they are talking about the economy and jobs. It’s an argument that, I would argue, even made it into the mainstream. You won’t just hear Nazis regurgitating it. I would even argue that this, more than any other thing they could say, is the number one argument Nazis use to reel people in.
It isn’t true, of course. The linked article retells some fairly standard stuff which everyone who visited a (a bit more in-depth) class or seminar about German history during the Third Reich will know. Of course, only very few people visit those classes. (I know all this because during my last two years of school I was in a advanced history class in Germany – five hours a week – but even in Germany very few people will go that much into depth and considering how little I learned about, say, US history in school, the rest of the world has probably even less hope of ever learning this.)
- wisty 13y agoThere's reasons to think that a Keynesian program (even one which focused on war, not building useful infrastructure) could have ended up fixing a truly out-of-kilter economy. But it only fixes medium term (~10 year horizon) problems. Once the monetary / investment system is fixed, Germany would have stalled. It suffered from massive brain drain (if you literally have Einstein, making him flee isn't a great idea). And totalitarianism isn't great for creating an innovative workforce, even if you can keep your population from fleeing.
- cpleppert 13y agoIf you are embarking on such a Keynesian program in a climate of general depression and lack of investment in other countries then you will enjoy generally low interest rates but you lose the ability to make short term investments and must make longer term ones. In the case of Nazi Germany Hitler purposely took on massive amounts of debt to rearm the country. Any economic success was temporary and entirely dependent on the massive arms program. Not only was the Nazi state inefficient arms investment couldn't possibly have ever paid back the investment in borrowed money that created the Nazi military.
- greedo 13y agoYep, it's a variation of "at least they made the trains run on time," which itself is another fallacy.
- FelixP 13y ago>I would even argue that this, more than any other thing they could say, is the number one argument Nazis use to reel people in. I'm sorry, could you clarify this? I'm hardly an expert, but I can't imagine that your average skinhead-type was drawn in by the economic allure of fascist state corporatism...
- arrrg 13y agoIt’s not just Skinheads who are Nazis. And even Skinheads probably will think something along the lines of “when the Nazis were in power the economy was strong”.