Hitler on Globalization
Hett: End of Democracy
“More than anything else, the Nazi’s were a nationalist protest movement against globalization. This passage makes startling reading today. It seems to leap from that time to ours:
“The German people have no interest”, Hitler wrote, on “a German Financial group or a German shipyard establishing a so-called subsidiary shipyard in Shanghai to build ships for China with Chinese workers and foreign steel.” The German company would profit from this arrangement, but the German people would be deprived of many times that through lost sales.” The more the capitalist interests shaped the economy and shaped politicks the more these kinds of foreign subsidiaries would be established and German jobs sent abroad. “Today some can smile about these future developments,” but “in thirty years people will moan about their results in Europe” Hitler 1928. Hett. Death of Democracy, p106.
What Hitler ruled out for Germany the US did with a vengeance. My professor of Surgery, CJ Berne used to say, “all altruism is self-serving.” The Marshall Plan is universally viewed as a magnanimous thing the US did to rebuild Europe after the devastation of WWII. What is not appreciated is that built into the Marshall Plan were requirements that if US Companies had offices in Europe, the Europeans had to use US goods and machinery. This encouraged US corporations to set up European subsidiaries and gave them tax benefits to do so, and in many instances paid for the machineries. This was the origins of the off-shoring of the US economy. Sending jobs overseas to produce in states with lower costs improved the bottom lines of US corporations, but, particularly with the Neoliberal push in the 80s on led to massive de-industrialization in the us with loss of many factories and well paying jobs.
Empires have a natural history. This is one mistake commonly made. (That and getting involved in costly overseas wars…at which we are a master).
Globalization has decimated the workforce in this country, and has massively undercut the security of the nation. It has been good for business (US corporations control 50% of the world’s commerce). But, just how are security has been impacted was made clear in the current Coronavirus pandemic. We have been massively dependent on China, India and Europe for testing equipment and PPE. (As of 5-30-2020 we still are way short of testing and short on PPE.)
But the really terrifying aspect of this is that we no longer make antibiotics and many pharmaceuticals in this country. China and India make virtually all of the raw materials for our pharmaceuticals. And we are facing shortages. But if our supply-chains were cut off either through war or other political factors the consequences of our country would be unimaginable and catastrophic. Running our health care system without out antibiotics and other drugs would be an unmitigated catastrophe—as any physician could attest. And we are in this situation because corporations has been given breaks by our politicians and allowed to maximize their profits while at the same time ignoring the security needs of the United States. This needs to change. Pharma needs to repatriate the manufacture of these drugs, or corporate charters should be revoked and the government should start producing them (at a fraction of the cost)…
Howard P. Charman, MD 5-30-2020