commiecapybara [he/him, e/em/eir]

I’m more of a fan of Socialist Classicism myself

In some cultures, yes, many GNC gay people would be considered part of a ‘third gender’, and this was also the case in a lot of the West before modern separatist movements came into the picture. There’s still an overlap today between he/him lesbians, stone butch, drag kings, and transmasc communities, just like there are overlaps between effeminate she/her gays, drag queens, and transfemme communities.

Also, non-binary people can physically transition through various surgeries and hormones, in addition to social transitioning. It’s often very difficult because much of western society doesn’t recognize their existence, so NB people are often forced to choose between the ‘socially acceptable gender’ of either male or female to live as legally, which can in turn lead to major dysphoria.

Exactly. So you agree that it’s impossible to earn and save a billion dollars just by working hard. It requires either exploiting your workers by stealing their surplus value, or by using the market by short-selling, using hedge funds, trading through illegal offshore numbered accounts, derivatives, etc.

The average US worker has a salary of $46,800 (in 2018) before taxes. Assuming they saved everything and spent nothing, it would take over 5 years for them to make 250k. Again, this is before taxes, and without spending anything. For the vast majority of people, 250k is a lot of money.

Assuming they saved everything and spent nothing, the average worker would have to work the entire length of all human history in order to earn a billion dollars. If they were to make as much money as Jeff Bezos, they would have to work for 2.8 million years.

Assuming you earned a million dollars every year, it would take 1000 years to earn your first billion dollars.

It’s not possible to become a billionaire simply through working, as humans do not live that long.

Again, if you have evidence to the contrary, you can contact the author of the research paper, or you can submit your findings to a peer-reviewed academic journal. Here are some further academic sources that also support the claim that the Nazi economy was heavily engaged in privatization, and some relevant quotes:

“After the 1931 banking crisis the survival of the four German great banks was safeguarded only by a huge injection of taxpayers’ money. In return, the great banks were partly nationalized and the two worst affected, the Dresdner Bank and the Danat Bank, were merged. Re-privatization was, however, started only a few years later and finalized under Nazi rule in 1937.”

Source: After the Crisis: Nationalisation and re-privatization of the German great banks 1931–1937

“There occurred hardly any nationalizations of private firms during the Third Reich. In addition, there were few enterprises newly created as state-run firms.”

“The foregoing discussion is clearly corroborated by an analysis of Nazi intentions. Available sources make perfectly clear that the Nazi regime did not want at all a German economy with public ownership of many or all enterprises. Therefore it generally had no intention whatsoever of nationalizing private firms or creating state firms. On the contrary the re-privatization of enterprises was furthered wherever possible.”

Source: The Role of Private Property in the Nazi Economy: The Case of Industry

Thanks for the reply; I’m not all that well-versed on the subject, so I definitely need to read more about it!

Wasn’t fascist corporatism basically inspired by functionalism? I vaguely remember reading about how Durkheim rejected materialism and class conflict in favor of a form of corporatism.

Correct. Because the Nazi economy was called ‘privatization.’

If you wish to argue against the author’s findings, you can contact gbel@ub.edu.

“In return for business assistance, the Nazis hastened to give evidence of their good will by restoring to private capitalism a number of monopolies held or controlled by the state."

In other words, the Nazis specifically took certain businesses that were formerly nationalized and then privatized them.

For further reading:

• Retrospectives The Coining of “Privatization” and Germany’s National Socialist Party - Article from Journal of Economic Perspectives
• Against the mainstream: Nazi privatization in 1930s Germany - Research paper from the University of Barcelona

Reminded of this classic video

It never fails to make me smile at how China developed such amazing high-speed rail in just a few decades