Silverman wrote:
8: Hitler destroyed organized labor. Big business appreciated his efforts. Hitler knew that he would have to find work for the 6 million unemployed to prevent mobilization against his government. Big business accepted the work creation program given its gratitude to the government and fear of retribution.
In fact, full employment was not a major goal of the economy. Instead, he emphasizes, that full employment was seen as a way of seducing labor into accepting the destruction of the unions and the creation of an anti-labor state.
Doug Henwood wrote:
> michael at ecst.csuchico.edu wrote:
>
> >Maybe I am missing something. How does saying that Hitler's civilian jobs
> >program was fairly successful, in anyway justify the reprehensible actions
> >of the Nazis. I have read the book. Neither the author nor Lynn showed
> >any great love for the Nazis.
>
> Fascism can tolerate full employment because of the repression of labor
> (not to mention racial and sexual minorities, etc.). You can't just look at
> the full employment policies in isolation, as Lynn did, and I assume the
> author of the book did. And you sure concede some credibility to the
> Hayekian critique of Keynesianism by ignoring this little fact.
>
> Doug
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Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901