Evening star., 1940-09-20
Reich Money Policy
Puts Average Nazi
In ComicaI Spot
Produces and Earns More,
But Government Takes
Most of Ii Back
Nv WALLACE r. DEUEL.,

BERLIN, Sept. 20,-The Nazi eco
nomic and financial policy has
placed the average German in a
comical predicament:
He is producing more and earn
ing more now than he ever did
before, but he cannot spend much
of his increased earnings, because
the goods simply are not there to
buy.
For most of the things the citizen
earns more money by producing are
production goods and armaments,
not consumption goods. They are,
in the terms of the now famous
formula, cannon (and steel glrders)
and not butter. And even such OF
the production goods as the citizen
could use and would like to buy he
cannot have, because the govern
ment wants them and will not allow
the citizen to compete in the mar
kets for them.
Nature itself sets some limits on
human consumption, but the Nazls
have been no more inclined to let
nature take its course in this sphere
than they have in others, and they
themselves have imposed additional
and far more effective limits of
their own.
Everything Rationed.
BY one means or another. partly
by deliberate choice. partly from
bitter necessity, the Nazis long be-
fore the war were rationing every
thing from gold in wedding rings,
chocolate in Easter eggs and rub
Der in elastic mustache trainers to
the clothes in which the dead are
allowed to be buried.
Not only is the consumer him
self rationed, furthermore, but the
Nazis also see to it that the goods
produced In Germany are predomi-
nately production goods-and arnla-
ments, of course.
The value of total national pro-
duction, including both industry
and handicrafts, increased from
SO 38.OO0,O0OO0 marks in 1882 to IT,
000.O0O,00O in 1887, the last year
for which detailed figures are avail
able
But almost 10 per cent of this
increase was in value Of produc-
ton goods. products which rose from
2OOO0.O0O, 900 marks in 1882 to A.
00O000,000 marks in 1887, an in
crease of 27,O0000O,000 marks, or
135 per cent. Only slightly over 80
per cent of the total increase oc-
Cured in production Of consumer
goods, which rose from $4,000 600 600
marks in 1882 to 10000 900 900
marks in 1887, or by 12,00o,0OO,oOO
marks, or 66.6 per cent.
Taxes Exceedingly Heavy.
Prevented from spending an in
creasingly large proportion of what
he earns. what does the citizen do?
He buys government bonds. he
builds up his savings account, he
takes out insurance-and, of course,
he also pays taxes.
He pays, in fact, exceedingly
heavy taxes. The Reich's revenues
from taxation have risen from
6846,0000OO marks for the fiscal
year of 1884 to an estimated 25,-
900 900 900 marks for the current
year. an increase of 1874, 900 900
marks. or 265.1 per cent.
Of the estimated $4,000, 900 900
mark tax income for the current
year. special war taxes are expected
to bring in approximately 5000
900 OO00-a so per cent surtax on
incomes over 2,400 marks yearly
and increased levies on tobacco,
beer, iqueurs and sparkling wines.
These taxes brought in 1.249 700 900
marks during the first four months
Of the current fiscal year.
But the savings banks and in
surance companies do not hoard the
money they get from the citizens.
They use it to buy government Sc
curities. So the state gets that
money, too.
States Take Increases.
An increasingly large proportion
of the national income, in other
words, has been going to the state
ever since the Nazis took over.
In 1882 the Weimar republic took
3O6 per cent of the national income
the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. esti-
mates, whereas in 1888 the Nazis
took AZ per cent. A writer in the
latest number of Das Reich calcu-
lates that the state took almost
exactly half the national income
during the fiscal year 1939-40. And
Rudolf Brinkmann. former under
secretary in the Ministry of Eco
nomics, has said that two-thirds
of the whole German national in
come flowed through the hands
of and was redistributed by the
state" in 1887, and the proportion
has certainly risen since then.
These are the essentials of the
Nazi economic policy-these and
methods whereby the regime has
proflted by levies upon subject peo-
Piles. This is the secret" of the
German economic miracle" Thi;
Is how the Nazis are paying for the
war.
The miracle" is, of course, more
of a political and military than il
Is an economic or financia
achievement - the combination o!
compulsion, conviction and cajolery
whereby the German people have
been induced to accept impairment'
of their freedom which alone have
made the whole program possible
and the military successes whereby
the Reich has been able to make
conquered peoples pay for a moi
inconsiderable part of it. too.
(Copyright, 1910. by the Chicago
Daily News, Inc)