“Basically National Socialism and Marxism are the same.”

A quote from a famous left winger and one of the worst tyrants in history.

Both are systems of absolute control over the individual. Both are evil.

Straight from the horses mouth, an accurate analysis.

Hmmm, really? Keep in mind his words were an intentional statement of convenient propaganda. It's true the tyranny inherent to the two political systems referred to by Hitler, can accurately be described as having imposed identical deprivations of life, freedom and substance. However, beyond that undeniable similarity there's little truth left in his statement. The differences were in fact immense. For instance, even the most superficial look at corporations deeply involved with the Nazis, and their unanimous renunciation of anything Marxist, demonstrates the validity of my point. I.G. Farben, manufacturer of Zyklon-B, now enjoys immense international success as Bayer Corporation and BASF. Look at Siemans and Krupp and literally dozens of others. WHERE ARE THE MARXIST EQUIVALENTS? Nazism and Capitalism were married, however much that particular fact remains unfortunate and hidden. The same is not true when it comes to Marxism.

Finally, a little light shines, Mr. Mann. Thank you for real facts and good sense.

Marxism, Fascism, Communism, Socialism -- all are totalitarian, all are collectivist, all are statist, all are dictatorships or oligarchies ultimately. They all hold the State supreme and the individual but a means. Capitalism or laissez-faire is absolutely contradictory to socialism in any of its forms. Fascism and communism were the dominant systems at the time (and dare I say still are). Capitalism controlled is but monopoly and corporatism (e.g. fascism). Where are the equivalents to Siemans et al? Look to communist China, a country of 'workers' enslaved to the State, slave labor essentially. Absolute control over production and reproduction -- both key tenets of Marxism and National Socialism. Financiers of communism in Russia and fascism in Germany can be traced to the US, absolutely. The US has essentially been fascist since the early 20th century.

Mann, are you suggesting that any of these companies became internationally successful under the Hitler regime? If so, I have to say that they most certainly did not. They enjoyed nothing but state control for the benefit of the government in Hitler's time. Only through free markets and capitalism did they grow to be successful on a global scale. The only difference between industry in NAZI Germany and Stalinist Russia was who was in control and how...but in both cases the government was ultimately in control and the companies produced goods for the benefit of the state at little or no profit.

Anyone who equates Socialism with Communism is a political ignoramus.

Mann, your ignorance of what a corporation is, blinds the rest of your understanding. A corporation is a bifurcation. A corporation's officers, stock holders, etc. participate in the day to day operations and possible profits of a State's phantasm (a legal person). The State is the other half of the bifurcation. The State owns all corporate corpus and otherwise value, as well as defines the corporation's creation, on going existence, and scope of operations. The unspoken rule is, the larger the corporation, the closer the relationship to government officials, rules, privileges, etc. The difference between this form of fascist socialism and communism is the management. Communism owns and controls outright the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc. without benefit of the order more local ordering (corporations). More than basically, National Socialism and Marxism are the same with, the almost sole discrepancy being, a managerial operation.

The relationship of the government's body politic to the government's fiscal body becomes more and more apparent as corporations grow large enough they become too big to fail (or even close to that level)

Utter bullshit. Hitler never said that. He was vehemently anti-Marxist.

Originally, perhaps, one of the bases of Stalin's having deemed him trustworthy...

He didn't know the difference!

Robert, knows the difference in what? What difference did he not know? Socialism's different management styles are identified by use of corporations or no corporations (fascism or communism) - the 10 planks and much more of what Marx spoke fits both fascism and communism, all under the auspices of socialism.

As to Mann in Kalamazoo -- certainly Communist China has equivalents. But each of those corporations in Nazi Germany and Communist China know well who or what is in charge. Hitler allowed some rope for efficiency. Russia had well compensated managers. For the I G Farbens and the Krupps the state was their business. Others were allowed in order to bring in currency into the economy.