Who was more economically left-wing: Hitler, or Bill Clinton?

[vitoNova]

Bubba, obviously.

Western economic leftists do not tend to increase defense spending (Das Camo Welfare.  LOL).

In fact, that's my baseline litmus test on who I distinguish between basic liberals vs. conservatives.

I rest my case. 

[KaiserDave]

Industries were privatized en masse under the Nazis. Bubba's Wall St. deregulations are child's play by comparison.

While true, this is misleading. The Nazi Party did privatize certain industries that they believed had too much Jewish Influence historically, but they didn’t hand it over to the free market- they handed it over to certain Nazi officials, who still used those industries heavily for the Nazi State agenda. The whole “Nazis were socialists lol” argument isn’t true, but saying they were pro-privatization doesn’t capture the whole story as well.

Anyways, one that I will say is that I think people here are missing something critical, and that’s that political philosophy is just as, if not more, important than actual policy. The Nazis weren’t socialist, but if taking from a rich pure “Aryan” would help feed a poor “Aryan”, Nazi’s would’ve supported that in an instant, at least once the Revolution had largely succeeded. I wouldn’t say this makes them economically left-wing, even relative to Clinton, but it doesn’t largely fit within modern libertarian economic interpretations as well.

While you do have a point here, the thing about Nazi privations being primarily motivated by anti semitism I find to be suspect, especially given the mass scale of Nazi privatizations, and the ideological pro-privatizations bend behind them. The Hitlerite wing of the NSDAP believed in privatization in many cases as a matter of principal, and as a Social Darwinist Hitler strongly opposed government bureaucracy that served to uplift the poor, but you're right that economics was subordinate to racial and war policy (and Hitler frequently spoke on how he didn't have a specific economic program). Hitler isn't some kind of libertarian or principled laissez-faire capitalist (he's much much worse), but not at all to the left of Bill Clinton.

[KaiserDave]

Hitler belonged to a socialist party. Bill Clinton did not. I rest my case

I hope this is satire and will treat it as such.

[Former President tack50]

Hitler belonged to a socialist party. Bill Clinton did not. I rest my case

I hope this is satire and will treat it as such.

I was hoping I would not need to put a /s disclaimer!

[KaiserDave]

Hitler belonged to a socialist party. Bill Clinton did not. I rest my case

I hope this is satire and will treat it as such.

I was hoping I would not need to put a /s disclaimer!

One would hope, but you never know !

[Big Abraham]

Industries were privatized en masse under the Nazis. Bubba's Wall St. deregulations are child's play by comparison.

While true, this is misleading. The Nazi Party did privatize certain industries that they believed had too much Jewish Influence historically, but they didn’t hand it over to the free market- they handed it over to certain Nazi officials, who still used those industries heavily for the Nazi State agenda. The whole “Nazis were socialists lol” argument isn’t true, but saying they were pro-privatization doesn’t capture the whole story as well.

Anyways, one that I will say is that I think people here are missing something critical, and that’s that political philosophy is just as, if not more, important than actual policy. The Nazis weren’t socialist, but if taking from a rich pure “Aryan” would help feed a poor “Aryan”, Nazi’s would’ve supported that in an instant, at least once the Revolution had largely succeeded. I wouldn’t say this makes them economically left-wing, even relative to Clinton, but it doesn’t largely fit within modern libertarian economic interpretations as well.

The Nazi government took the stance that enterprises should be in private hands wherever possible.  State ownership was to be avoided unless it was absolutely necessary for rearmament or the war effort, and even in those cases “the Reich often insisted on the inclusion in the contract of an option clause according to which the private firm operating the plant was entitled to purchase it.”*

You're right that the Nazis weren't libertarian - they were corporatist, which is even worse. As you point out, the mass privatizations (banks, railways, shipyards, coal/steel, chemical plants etc.) were done to cement the partnership between the government and business interests.** In particular Hitler tried to achieve this by breaking up smaller corporations (with capital <$40k Marks) and forbade the establishment of newer ones with less than $200K Marks, immediately effecting the collapse of smaller companies and ensuring an alliance between large corporate manufacturers and the Nazi regime.

Hitler of course also banned all trade unions that existed before his rise to power, replaced them one controlled by the Nazi Party, and outlawed striking. And the Nazis in principle were also opposed to social welfare, believing instead that the that the weak and feeble should perish. All of this means that Nazi Germany was far more hostile to workers' rights than either the Weimar Republic or the United States at the time.

* The Role of Private Property in the Nazi Economy
** "Nazi privatization in 1930s Germany"

[TheReckoning]

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Hitler of course also banned all trade unions that existed before his rise to power, replaced them one controlled by the Nazi Party, and outlawed striking. And the Nazis in principle were also opposed to social welfare, believing instead that the that the weak and feeble should perish. All of this means that Nazi Germany was far more hostile to workers' rights than either the Weimar Republic or the United States at the time.

Lenin also banned all private trade unions that existed prior to foundation of the USSR (or put them under the umbrella of the Communist Party) but that doesn’t mean that Lenin wasn’t far-left on the issue of economics. Additionally, while “survival of the fittest” was definitely a component of Nazi ideology, this didn’t so much apply to economics- Hitler was clear in his first radio address that “Our concern to provide daily bread will be equally a concern for the fulfillment of the responsibilities of society to those who are old and sick.” (https://www.facinghistory.org/holocaust-and-human-behavior/chapter-5/hitlers-first-radio-address)

Anyone who argues that the Nazis were socialists/left-wing will reach a dead end. But they did have some strains of thought that could be conceived as being “left-wing”- majorly so before the Night of Long Knives.