Was Hitler a Capitalist?
Nazi economic policy was neither free-market capitalism nor state socialism; it was a totalitarian command economy.
State Supremacy: Private enterprise and property technically existed, but business owners were strictly subordinated to state control. The regime set prices, wages, production quotas, and dividends.
Ideology over Profit: Capitalists who cooperated made profits, but those who resisted were ousted or nationalized. The economy was driven entirely by state rearmament and racial/ideological goals, not free-market forces.
Capitalism isn’t “free markets”, capitalism is private ownership of the means of production. The Nazi leadership were all members of the capitalist class who took direct control of the state to consolidate power and steal wealth from other capitalists and the working class. Those who were not in the in-group were “nationalized,” but control of and profit from those nationalized businesses went to loyal capitalists in the Nazi party.
Was Hitler a Capitalist? Nazi economic policy was neither free-market capitalism nor state socialism; it was a totalitarian command economy. State Supremacy: Private enterprise and property technically existed, but business owners were strictly subordinated to state control. The regime set prices, wages, production quotas, and dividends. Ideology over Profit: Capitalists who cooperated made profits, but those who resisted were ousted or nationalized. The economy was driven entirely by state rearmament and racial/ideological goals, not free-market forces.
Capitalism isn’t “free markets”, capitalism is private ownership of the means of production. The Nazi leadership were all members of the capitalist class who took direct control of the state to consolidate power and steal wealth from other capitalists and the working class. Those who were not in the in-group were “nationalized,” but control of and profit from those nationalized businesses went to loyal capitalists in the Nazi party.
Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.
-Benito Mussolini