In a socialist system, the objective of the state is to allocate all (or virtually all) resources and means to the ends of "the people" as a whole or "the good of society." The theoretical notions underlying socialism has already been refuted in this course: we have shown that "the people" as a whole cannot pursue ends, since human action is rooted in individuals rather than social groupings (pp. 2.4:3-14); moreover, the notion of "the good of society" has no scientific basis and can be neither defined nor measured objectively (pp. 4.8:29-30). Under a typical socialist régime, all means of production, including land, capital, and labor, are owned explicitly by the state. Under the system known as fascism or national socialism, however, at least some of the means of production are nominally under private ownership, but virtually all decisions regarding the use of those means are dictated by the state. Thus the ruling authority determines all prices, wages, production and consumption quotas, and so forth, just as with other forms of socialism. Since true ownership entails the right to determine how an item of property will be used or traded, this "private ownership" is only a facade. Consequently, national socialism is in practice not very different from other forms of socialism. "Private ownership" may serve a propagandistic purpose, however, inasmuch as the alleged private owners can be blamed for the system's failures, at least in its early stages. In later stages, recognition of such failures can be repressed entirely by means of a well-developed propaganda machine. "National socialism" is rendered in German as Nationalsozialismus and is called "Nazism" for short.