| Economics of Barbarism - Book Review | ||||||||
by J. Kuczynski and M. Witt International Publishers, 1942 Price: $0.15
By 1942 the war crimes committed by the Nazis were well known. “Goering and the others are not merely dope-fiends and sadists” but they have plans to “set the German monopolists to the head of the world economy”. Kuczynski and Witt claim that despite all the atrocities the Nazis continue to commit, their economics of barbarism is the greatest evil unleashed on the world. The economics of barbarism is easy enough to understand: The policy of the economics of barbarism: produce as much of the means of destruction as possible – as few goods for the man on the street as possible – and out of this you get enormous profits for the monopolists and frightful deprivation for the mass of the people. (15)The authors show how production in military industries grew rapidly from 1932 to 1942 at the expense of consumer good industries such as the production of toys and textiles. Agricultural production was diverted from producing food for the civilian population to producing crops useful for the military. Predictably malnutrition became rampant in Germany and Nazi occupied Europe. The economic policies of the Nazis were designed to help the largest corporations in Germany, particularly ones where high-ranking Nazi official were majority shareholders. Small businesses and companies in non-essential industries were bought out, driven out of business or confiscated if the owners were enemies of the state such as Jews and Communists. Nazi-controlled corporations benefited because they both obtained the assets of the other companies and had fewer competitors as a result. The former owners of the small businesses, many of whom were highly skilled artisans, would then be forced to work for these large corporations in order to earn a living. The Nazis had many tools at their disposal to control the labor supply. Trade unions were made illegal, eliminating the power workers had to negotiate the terms of their employment. Because German industry was becoming concentrated in fewer and fewer companies there was little competition for workers. Companies could require 80-hour workweeks of their employees who could not choose to work for another company in their industry because often there was only one company in that industry to work for. The Economics of Barbarism dispels the myth that the National Socialists set up a particularly efficient economic system. In most industries, production per hour was far lower and the rate of industrial accidents was far higher than in the pre-Nazi period. Any economic gain experienced in military industries was due to the doubling of the workweek, resources gained through conquest, and the total neglect of the consumer goods industry. The Moral of the Story - Companies having a monopoly position in an industry, particularly when their shareholders are top government officials can only have negative consequences for the workingman. The warning is particularly important given the current political and economic climate in the United States. Why this book didn't get five stars - Like most books published in wartime the analysis is completely one-sided. Kuczynski and Witt see the Soviet Union as being able to save the European worker from the ravages of monopoly capitalism and National Socialism. The abhorrent treatment of workers under Stalinist Russia is never commented upon. This is not at all surprising given that International Publishers published the book. International Publishers of New York is a company that publishes works by Communist authors, and still exists today. Moffatt's Recommendation - Buy this book if you can find it, either at a used bookstore or on eBay. I wouldn’t pay more than 5 to 10 dollars for it. |
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