The Rhodes Center Podcast: Nazi Billionaires, Capitalist Ethics, and Other Notable Contradictions
On this episode Mark Blyth talks with this year’s invited speaker at the Rhodes Center’s annual 'Ethics of Capitalism’ lecture series, journalist David de Jong.
David’s groundbreaking book “Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of Germany's Wealthiest Dynasties”, looks at the individuals and companies that accumulated unimaginable wealth under the Third Reich. Through his incredible investigative work, he exposes how these companies - including iconic German businesses like Volkswagen, BMW, and Allianz - thrived under the Nazi regime. He also looks at how, despite their dark history, most have never fully reconciled with their past - and how the families that founded such enterprises have only grown more wealthy in the decades since.
David and Mark discuss this dark history, and explore the questions it poses about the nature of capitalism: how can businesses operate responsibly in a world where it’s so easy to profit off the suffering of others? And what do private companies owe the rest of us, above their bottom line?
Learn more about and purchase “Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of Germany's Wealthiest Dynasties”
This reminds me of the history of reconstruction in the US following the civil war regarding African Americans... 1.try to do the right thing, 2. quickly get tired and revert to the status quo and then 3. try to forget and carry on. The US in trying to reconstruct a democratic Germany in its image seems to have given this playbook to Germans to do the same after WW2 following the war. The ethics of capitalism easy as 1...2...3.
When respondents begin their statements with attributions for pre WWII conflicts and wars to America, they demonstrate an egocentrism that drives a narcissistic world view that declares America the supreme country of all time. This is the fault of our educational system over emphasizing US History to the detriment of world history. Look, I love my country but we are not the best model of governance or economics. We are not the Second Coming of Christ. My European friends laugh at our ignorance of world affairs, paths, and trajectories. Aristocracies that birthed from feudal governments caused WWI and stoked the flames for WWII. The US is currently building feudal kingdoms through unbridling capitalistic money traders. It has been in this business since Ronald Reagan enacted de-taxing the wealthy and deregulating stock markets. By demonizing helping the poor and forging a false identity with evangelical leaders, the wealthy began pirating companies and shutting down municipal economies all with “God’s blessing.” If left unchecked by ignoring Teddy Roosevelt’s antitrust laws the US will become a third-world country and a retreat for criminals.
The Republican Party had few civil rights members. The majority, including Lincoln, expected black Americans to leave the country. Lincoln even proposed it to black leaders to get their support. Republicans were racist because America was racist. 60 years later and they are embracing the second KKK. Lots of fake Prager U/ Ben Shapiro history that exists. It's the second Southern Strategy.
I studied this under Bernard Bellon, hist prof at Ga Tech. He did the primary research on slave labor for Krupps, others in the 1980s. Died young in the early 90s, apparently of Lou Gehrigs.
Thanks Mark! This David de Jong is just what I needed -- my whole life.
America's equivalent today is the Congressional Military Industrial Complex and it's owners operators the Corporate Warfare Queens who never lose a contract. Using tax dollars these same contractors fund politicians campaigns. Today we're spending more on individual weapons systems than what we spend all State Department, diplomacy. Madison warned no democracy can survive a permanently standing army'. Right up to WW2 we always dropped military spending after conflicts. Today no amount poured into this bottomless pit is enough. Producing wildly expensive overly complicated weapons systems oftentimes they never perform as expected.
Ukraine loves all our products. And American arms never stole from Jewish families or used slave labor. I think your analysis is just plain wrong.
Looking at certain US billionaires, their practices and political proclivities ("...free enterprise cannot be maintained in a democracy" - isn't that what you are after, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk?) come to mind...
And they are allowed to control huge amounts of personal data: Thiel has a security clearance.
Great conversation and one that could be replicated here in the US on so many levels.
So the one and only ethic of business is greed. It was said in a Hollywood movie that greed is good so it must be true, right?
So this is how so called civilization marches of the Cliff of human extinction. Back room deals and sweeping dirt under the rug. The irresponsibility is staggering.
calm down dear, nobody is going extinct
@@Confucius_76 Says the smug comfortable lemming.
@mtn1793 damn it how did you know that!? I try to keep a low profile
Great podcast, could have been longer with more details.
Isn't the point it would have been mismanagement, under capitalism, had they not taken advantage of forced labor and so on?
Thats crony capitalism = corporate government = kind of feudalism. I would say it's also comparable to a brain with no communication between left and right.
Exactly.
Valid point indeed.
The final stage of Capitalism is always fascism and slave labor. Viva la revolution!
Of course, "prisoner" leasing they learned from, shocker, post-Reconstruction Dixie!
34:05 lol its funny how capitlisms reminds me of the grey goo solution to the fermi paradox
Old poor people in US working for Amazon or other Big Businesses....are they forced labour, volenteers or (debt)slaves ? Same question Ivwould say could becasked in regard to all the refugees caused by wars .
"Partners"
Or one man contractors. That way you have no worker rights, and they can treat you like a hostile business partner.
They also suppress the wages of the indigenous population aswell as creating a rich seam of division in the population. People shouting at their foreign neighbour while those in power drag in debt from the future (pick your pockets). Ignorance is truely dangerous.
As a philosopher once said: "You're a slave to the money, then you die."
@@stephendaley266 You live, and keep your head down and die, if your lucky. Adrian Edmondson
As a fellow Dutchy, I think it's good this book was made, but maybe it would have been even better if it was written by a German.
Waarom?
money loves money, there are no capitalist ethics ... don't be facetious, all ethics are exogenous to barely hold society together
Sterling Archer, has a mother named Mallory Archer. In the show, Mallory apologizes for not being around much when Sterling was growing up because she was busy hunting Nazis. 😂😢😅
Now I know where the Sackler family got its playbook.
I guess the billionaires from Britain who amazed their fortunes During the colonialism era are all clean with impressive ethics !
'amazed their fortunes'
Look up Elons most recent comments on Jews today… very odd
He criticized George Soros? That's not commenting on ALL Jews
Maybe, maybe not. However, for millions of Americans, Musk is a stand-in for a particular imagined ideal “Americanism” just as Soros is name-dropped as a dog-whistle to conjure whatever is existentially opposed to that Americanism ideal. Folks have been trained to bristle by AM radio since the ‘90’s at least. Then it was Fox doing the whistling now Twitter(X).
I have never understood why Bremer implemented such a harsh and destructive de-baathification of Iraq but now it makes sense, he wanted his own version of denazification.
#nikkobriteramos
Why do they think that democracy was an ideal in 1930s Germany? Would not a patriotic German of that era see democracy as the bane of their country and getting rid of it a patriotic duty? This is the problem with most journalists, they fail to realize that the values that they hold sacred are not necessarily shared by others in other places and periods and that is why the west is fundametally unable to enter meaningful dialogue with other civilizations.
Musk thinking of putting his billions into Tucker Carlson’s could be just as bad a decision as him trying to ‘manage’ Twitter but it could also become the main reason for full-on US fascism…with or without Trump?
ethics are social laws and need enforcement mechanisms, all animals press up against constraints. constraints can be internalized, many parents struggle to civilize their children, with varying success. but commerce is a war, and must be physically policed. it isn't, much, in the usa. moving your business, done in usa, to ireland to escape taxes is considered smart in usa. well, it is. the crime is in writing laws to allow this. the stupidity of the people in allowing the politicians to accommodate this practice suggests a society ripe for destruction. human society, that is, we are looking at extinction due to inadequate intelligence.
Temptation works.
?
Who, what, where.