The Struggle for Survival: Karl Marx's Life in Poverty
Once his son was ill. He needed a doctor and medicines, but Karl Marx had no money. Marx walked through rain and cold and mortgaged his coat to a pawnbroker and got some money. Marx did not spend the money on his son’s treatment. He printed a pamphlet to support his jailed revolutionary friends.
Though his son got better without medicine but died after some time.
You can call Karl Marx a selfish person but he was like this. Perhaps he wanted to set an example by sacrificing everything. But he kept on complaining about his poverty in letters to his friends. In 1859, Marx wrote a book A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. But he had no money to send its draft to the publisher. He wrote a letter to Engels.
He wrote there was hardly a writer who wrote a book on wealth while being poor. He asked Engels to send money for postal stamps to send the draft to the publisher. Engels sent some money and Marx was able to get his book published. Marx even wanted to get a job in a railway company. Sometimes he thought to send his 2 daughters to work in a rich man’s house.
The Revolutionary Persistence of Karl Marx Despite Extreme Poverty and Tragedy
He also decided to live in a charitable organization with his wife. Once he also considered emigrating to the United States. He also contacted publishers in America for the publication of his new books. He also enquired about ticket prices for America. But the tickets were too costly for him. But did the severe financial hardship, death of children and diseases keep Marx away from revolutionary activities? But Marx didn’t do that. He remained committed to revolution.
He continued his work. He also sat with his friends in bars and discussed revolution. Marx was a regular visitor to the British Library. He was always the 1st person to enter the library and the last to come out of it. Marx also completed his most popular book Its 1st volume was published in Berlin in 1867. The next 2 volumes were edited and published by Engels after Marx’s death. Das Kapital is considered the crux of Karl Marx’s philosophy.
In this book, Karl Marx describes how capitalism will fail and how the working class will one day take over the government. Karl Marx also mentioned that capitalism had an inherent destructive quality. Karl Marx predicted that capitalism would one day divide society into rich and poor communities. There would be few rich and mostly poor people in society.
Even some capitalists would also join the poor because of the ruthless competition among the rich.
From Poverty to Wealth: The Transformation of Karl Marx
In this way, the number of poor would increase. Marx thought that the working class would be greater in numbers and it would have nothing to lose. So one day the poor would overthrow the rich and take over the government. Das Kapital is doubtlessly the most popular of all Marx’s books. It is also called the Bible of laborers. This book also gave him fame and wealth.
Yes, the poor German revolutionary philosopher soon became a very rich man. How? Engels was Mar’s friend and he was a rich man. He also used to help Marx. Marx also got another source of income. He worked as the European correspondent of an American newspaper New York Daily Tribune. The newspaper was the global best seller at that time. He earned 2 pounds for 2 articles a week in the newspaper.
He also inherited 6,000 Francs from his mother and 900 pounds from one of his friends. All this money and the royalty of his books ensured that he spent the last days of his life in a better condition. He left the Soho area of London and moved to a posh area. Now he had a big house. He also successfully married off 2 of his daughters.
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