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| | If the young Marx's money woes were due to immaturity, in this regard he he never grew up. "Marx was perpetually in debt, thanks largely to a disastrous combination of traits in his own character," writes Hugh Griffith: "an incorrigible hopelessness with money, together with a refusal to stop spending when it ran out."<ref>Hugh Griffith, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=IyD9s6VVc-wC Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels]'' (Collector's Library, 2009) ISBN 1905716737, p. 10</ref> "Marx, the economist of the proletarian class," writes economist Yuri Maltsev, "was hardly what we would call a sound financial administrator."<ref>Yuri N. Maltsev, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=gx0X4NvNE_gC Requiem for Marx]'' (Auburn, AL: Ludwig Von Mises Institute, 1993) ISBN 1610161165, p. 101</ref> As Sowell observes: | | If the young Marx's money woes were due to immaturity, in this regard he he never grew up. "Marx was perpetually in debt, thanks largely to a disastrous combination of traits in his own character," writes Hugh Griffith: "an incorrigible hopelessness with money, together with a refusal to stop spending when it ran out."<ref>Hugh Griffith, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=IyD9s6VVc-wC Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels]'' (Collector's Library, 2009) ISBN 1905716737, p. 10</ref> "Marx, the economist of the proletarian class," writes economist Yuri Maltsev, "was hardly what we would call a sound financial administrator."<ref>Yuri N. Maltsev, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=gx0X4NvNE_gC Requiem for Marx]'' (Auburn, AL: Ludwig Von Mises Institute, 1993) ISBN 1610161165, p. 101</ref> As Sowell observes: |
| | {{cquote|Running left-wing movements has always been the prerogative of spoiled rich kids. This pattern goes all the way back to the days when an over-indulged and affluent young man named Karl Marx combined with another over-indulged youth from a wealthy family named Friedrich Engels to create the Communist ideology.<ref>Thomas Sowell, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=jJ22AAAAIAAJ Is reality optional?: and other essays]'' (Hoover Institution Press, 1993) ISBN 0817992626, p. 81</ref>}} | | {{cquote|Running left-wing movements has always been the prerogative of spoiled rich kids. This pattern goes all the way back to the days when an over-indulged and affluent young man named Karl Marx combined with another over-indulged youth from a wealthy family named Friedrich Engels to create the Communist ideology.<ref>Thomas Sowell, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=jJ22AAAAIAAJ Is reality optional?: and other essays]'' (Hoover Institution Press, 1993) ISBN 0817992626, p. 81</ref>}} |
| | + | As a young man, Marx's financial irresponsibility "drove him into the hands of moneylenders at high rates of interest."<ref>Paul Johnson, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=GTqHpZech0YC Intellectuals: From Marx and Tolstoy to Sartre and Chomsky]'' (HarperCollins, 2007) ISBN 0061253170), p. 73</ref> This pattern continued into his middle age: "Marx was constantly borrowing money against his future income," writes Jerrold Seigal, professor of history at New York University, "and until 1863 against his family inheritance too...."<ref>Jerrold Seigal, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=hCh6hSMDrigC Marx's Fate: The Shape of a Life]'' (Penn State Press, 2004) ISBN 0271025816, p. 257</ref> Marx's relations with his mother were "icy and distant," according to biographer Francis Wheen, at least in part because "she had been inconsiderate enough to stay alive," delaying Marx's eagerly-anticipated inheritance.<ref>Francis Wheen, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=3KOyuSakn80C Karl Marx: A Life]'' (W.W. Norton & Company, 2001) ISBN 0393321576, p. 8</ref> Upon the death of Engels' mistress, Mary Burns, Marx wrote, "Instead of Mary, ought it not to have been my mother," whom Marx judged "has had her fair share of life."<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1863/letters/63_01_08.htm Marx To Engels, January 8, 1863], in Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, ''[http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/cw/ Collected Works]'' (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1975), [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/cw/volume41/index.htm Vol. 41] (Trans. Robert Dixon), p. 442</ref> |
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| | In 1869, Marx told Engels he was £210 in debt, "of which about 75 are for pawnshop and interest."<ref>Quoted by Otto Ruhle, ''Karl Marx: His Life and Work'' (New York: Now Home Library, 1942; reprint: Lightning Source Inc, 2007) ISBN 1406727024, p. 360</ref> That year, Engels sold his interest in the family firm and paid off all Marx's debts; in addition, Engels gave Marx a pension of £350 per year.<ref>F.Engels to Karl Marx, March 28, 1869: “Enclosed draft on the Union Bank of London £87–10s for March to June” (ie £350 per annum) in ''Gesamtausgabe'' [Collected Works], Part III, Vol. 3, p. 173, as cited in William Otto Henderson, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=a9BvGA43rAQC Marx and Engels and the English workers: and other essays]'' (Psychology Press, 1989) ISBN 0714633348, p. 26, n. 41. The Marxist Internet Archive has apparently [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1869/letters/index.htm not yet found the time] to post this letter.</ref> According to Maltsev (using figures from an 1867 study presented to the Statistical Society of London),<ref>R. Dudley Baxter, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=gnI8AAAAcAAJ National income: the United Kingdom] (London: Macmillan and co, 1868)</ref> that put Marx's income in the top 2% of the British population—at the time the wealthiest in the world.<ref>Yuri N. Maltsev, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=gx0X4NvNE_gC Requiem for Marx]'' (Auburn, AL: Ludwig Von Mises Institute, 1993) ISBN 1610161165, p. 103</ref> Yet even this sum was not enough for Marx, who by his own admission was spending from £400 to £500 per year.<ref>Marx to Kugelmann, 17 March 1868, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=sgwQAQAAIAAJ Letters to Kugelmann]'' (Greenwood Press, 1973) ISBN 0837170451, p. 65. This is yet another letter the text of which is [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/letters/kug/index.htm missing] [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1868/letters/index.htm from] the Marxist Internet Archive.</ref> | | In 1869, Marx told Engels he was £210 in debt, "of which about 75 are for pawnshop and interest."<ref>Quoted by Otto Ruhle, ''Karl Marx: His Life and Work'' (New York: Now Home Library, 1942; reprint: Lightning Source Inc, 2007) ISBN 1406727024, p. 360</ref> That year, Engels sold his interest in the family firm and paid off all Marx's debts; in addition, Engels gave Marx a pension of £350 per year.<ref>F.Engels to Karl Marx, March 28, 1869: “Enclosed draft on the Union Bank of London £87–10s for March to June” (ie £350 per annum) in ''Gesamtausgabe'' [Collected Works], Part III, Vol. 3, p. 173, as cited in William Otto Henderson, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=a9BvGA43rAQC Marx and Engels and the English workers: and other essays]'' (Psychology Press, 1989) ISBN 0714633348, p. 26, n. 41. The Marxist Internet Archive has apparently [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1869/letters/index.htm not yet found the time] to post this letter.</ref> According to Maltsev (using figures from an 1867 study presented to the Statistical Society of London),<ref>R. Dudley Baxter, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=gnI8AAAAcAAJ National income: the United Kingdom] (London: Macmillan and co, 1868)</ref> that put Marx's income in the top 2% of the British population—at the time the wealthiest in the world.<ref>Yuri N. Maltsev, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=gx0X4NvNE_gC Requiem for Marx]'' (Auburn, AL: Ludwig Von Mises Institute, 1993) ISBN 1610161165, p. 103</ref> Yet even this sum was not enough for Marx, who by his own admission was spending from £400 to £500 per year.<ref>Marx to Kugelmann, 17 March 1868, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=sgwQAQAAIAAJ Letters to Kugelmann]'' (Greenwood Press, 1973) ISBN 0837170451, p. 65. This is yet another letter the text of which is [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/letters/kug/index.htm missing] [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1868/letters/index.htm from] the Marxist Internet Archive.</ref> |
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| − | As a young man, Marx's financial irresponsibility "drove him into the hands of moneylenders at high rates of interest."<ref>Paul Johnson, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=GTqHpZech0YC Intellectuals: From Marx and Tolstoy to Sartre and Chomsky]'' (HarperCollins, 2007) ISBN 0061253170), p. 73</ref> This pattern continued into his middle age: "Marx was constantly borrowing money against his future income," writes Jerrold Seigal, professor of history at New York University, "and until 1863 against his family inheritance too...."<ref>Jerrold Seigal, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=hCh6hSMDrigC Marx's Fate: The Shape of a Life]'' (Penn State Press, 2004) ISBN 0271025816, p. 257</ref> Marx's relations with his mother were "icy and distant," according to biographer Francis Wheen, at least in part because "she had been inconsiderate enough to stay alive," delaying Marx's eagerly-anticipated inheritance.<ref>Francis Wheen, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=3KOyuSakn80C Karl Marx: A Life]'' (W.W. Norton & Company, 2001) ISBN 0393321576, p. 8</ref> Upon the death of Engels' mistress, Mary Burns, Marx wrote, "Instead of Mary, ought it not to have been my mother," whom Marx judged "has had her fair share of life."<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1863/letters/63_01_08.htm Marx To Engels, January 8, 1863], in Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, ''[http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/cw/ Collected Works]'' (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1975), [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/cw/volume41/index.htm Vol. 41] (Trans. Robert Dixon), p. 442</ref>
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| | By Marx's own admission he was paying interest rates as high as 50% in 1866, when he was 48 years of age.<ref>Karl Marx, [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1866/letters/66_10_13.htm Marx To Ludwig Kugelmann, 13 October 1866], ''Collected Works'' (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1975), Volume 42, p. 327</ref> Perhaps not coincidentally, a "passionate hatred of usury was the real emotional dynamic of [Marx's] whole moral philosophy," argues historian Paul Johnson. "It explains why he devoted so much time and space to the subject" and, suggests Johnson, might be found "lying perhaps at the very roots of his hatred for the capitalist system."<ref>Paul Johnson, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=GTqHpZech0YC Intellectuals: From Marx and Tolstoy to Sartre and Chomsky]'' (HarperCollins, 2007) ISBN 0061253170), p. 73</ref> | | By Marx's own admission he was paying interest rates as high as 50% in 1866, when he was 48 years of age.<ref>Karl Marx, [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1866/letters/66_10_13.htm Marx To Ludwig Kugelmann, 13 October 1866], ''Collected Works'' (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1975), Volume 42, p. 327</ref> Perhaps not coincidentally, a "passionate hatred of usury was the real emotional dynamic of [Marx's] whole moral philosophy," argues historian Paul Johnson. "It explains why he devoted so much time and space to the subject" and, suggests Johnson, might be found "lying perhaps at the very roots of his hatred for the capitalist system."<ref>Paul Johnson, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=GTqHpZech0YC Intellectuals: From Marx and Tolstoy to Sartre and Chomsky]'' (HarperCollins, 2007) ISBN 0061253170), p. 73</ref> |