Re:How today's billionaires plan to improve the world
by madaxe_again on Monday March 19, 2018 @07:25AM
(#16617600)
Ford also successfully sued the US government following the Second World War for bombing their factories - in Nazi Germany - which also used slave labour from concentration camps. https://www.quora.com/Did-Ford-sue-the-US-government-for-bom...
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Re:How today's billionaires plan to improve the world
by pjc50 on Monday March 19, 2018 @08:03AM
(#16617739)
Extraordinary claim, which isn't quite borne out by the Quora answer.
And there's a lot of weirdness in there, including the obviously lunatic claim "The U.S. (et al.) effectively built and maintained the Nazi war machine for the entirety of World War 2."
Re:How today's billionaires plan to improve the world
by madaxe_again on Monday March 19, 2018 @10:26AM
(#16618531)
It’s hardly lunatic - Nazi germany was in no small part financed by American banks and corporations through German corporations such as Thyssen/Krupps - see Brown Brothers Harriman’s involvement, for example.
WWII was a wildly profitable enterprise.
Re: slave labour, see: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/...
BBH: https://www.google.com.uy/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/20...
More on Ford: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/nov98/n...
Re:How today's billionaires plan to improve the world
by pjc50 on Monday March 19, 2018 @10:33AM
(#16618594)
OK, I'm now convinced on the Ford slave labour question. And the rather extraordinary "General Motors, which was paid $32 million by the U.S. government for damages sustained to its German plants." from the WaPo link. It really does seem that money is stronger than blood when it comes to war.
The quora answer I was calling questionable was https://www.quora.com/Did-Ford-sue-the-US-government-for-bom... which is very different - while it seems that there were Americans illegally collaborating, that's a very different claim to the US supporting Nazi Germany.
Re:How today's billionaires plan to improve the world
by madaxe_again on Monday March 19, 2018 @10:39AM
(#16618647)
It’s a surprisingly grey area - until the US was dragged into the war by the Japanese, they took a largely neutral stance, in no small part due to US business interests in the third reich. The most they extended to the allies prior to that point was lend-lease - because the profits were considerable. Arming both sides was one hell of a hedge. There were, even while Europe duked it out with the Nazis, widely attended and supported Nazi rallies in venues such as Madison Square Garden. Truth is stranger than fiction, and is a nuanced beast.