To: Taro who wrote (230616 ) 4/25/2005 3:43:01 PM From: tejek Read Replies (1) | Respond to Götz Aly's latest book "Hitlers Volksstaat" gives you a pretty good picture of how the "National Sozialisten" cared about the Volk starting 1934. Many of the social reforms from back then are actually still valid. The bottom line is that the government under Hitler catered to the interests of the little man and thus corrupted the general population to become supportive of his politics. Between 1934 and 1939 the corporate taxes were increased while personal taxes were left untouched. Initially Hitler financed his social program by running heavy deficits (!), later additional funds amassed by stealing from the Jews kicked in and whatever they could confiscate from other countries as they invaded those. The idea that workers controlled the means of production in Nazi Germany is a bitter joke. It was actually a combination of aristocracy and capitalism. Technically, private businessmen owned and controlled the means of production. The Nazi "Charter of Labor" gave employers complete power over their workers. It established the employer as the "leader of the enterprise," and read: "The leader of the enterprise makes the decisions for the employees and laborers in all matters concerning the enterprise." (1)Like all war economies, it boomed, making Germany the second nation to recover fully from the Great Depression, in 1936. (The first nation was Sweden, in 1934. Following Keynesian-like policies, the Swedish government spent its way out of the Depression, proving that state economic policies can be successful without resorting to dictatorship or war. )huppi.com
