Karl Marx, born on May 5 of 1818, developed, with the help of Friedrich Engels, the political and economic ideology responsible for more deaths than any other ideology in human history: Communism. And the great Thomas Sowell managed to explain in one quote exactly why Communism has and continues to be so popular, even though it is a destructive, deadly, and disastrous philosophy.
Sowell observed, “At age thirty, Engels accepted his father's offer to work in the family business in Manchester. This became the source of Engels' livelihood —and much of Marx's. The young Engels called it ‘forced labor’ — a painfully ironic term in view of what the phrase was to come to mean in twentieth-century Communist societies. Engels complained, for example, that ‘I've now got to be at the office no later than 10 in the morning.’”
Engels was the archetypal Marxist. He and Karl didn’t want to work for a living, they wanted their rich relatives to hand over the money and allow them to invent unrealistic philosophies and pernicious ideas without interruption from any of the responsibilities of adulthood. And all of the lazy, entitled, spoiled brats of the centuries since have found Marxism attractive for that same reason.
I have personally heard multiple young people my age or a little older making very similar complaints to the one Engels made — “my boss expects me to show up on time,” or “I needed to take a day off because I was tired, and my boss wasn’t understanding,” or “working there was stressful” or “I had to meet the deadline even though I have ADHD.” It is not always the young people‘s fault, as, in some cases, they have been encouraged by their parents and teachers and even some bosses for their entire lives to have completely unrealistic expectations. But when inevitably at some point they do come face-to-face with reality, it is a disaster for employee and employer alike.
Related: Thatcher’s Wise Question: Why Do Commies Boast and Capitalists Apologize When Commies Are Failures?
And this is why Marxism is so especially popular among young Americans. Yes, many of their teachers and favorite celebrities are encouraging them to be socialist, but U.S. youth like the ideology because they believe the lies that universal free income and free healthcare and free everything else are possible. The great irony of Marxism is that by demanding redistribution of wealth, it brings about the very forced labor and robbery of workers which it claims to fight.
Marxism is a catastrophe. Last year I looked at the statistics on Communist genocide in China, Russia, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Cuba, and found that Marxism has been responsible for at least 524 million deaths. That's more than half a billion people. Every Communist country is an economic, political, and cultural failure. The only way the ideology survives and spreads is by playing upon the worst passions of human nature.
Malcontents, sluggards, the avaricious, the bitter, and the angry are all excellent targets for Marxism. Almost 40% of Americans have a positive view of socialism, and coincidentally more than 30% of Americans receive some government assistance. It all comes down to Americans wanting money they haven't earned. Instead of appreciating more benefits, shorter hours, and better working conditions than any people in history have experienced, modern Marxists whine, "I've now got to be at the office no later than 10 in the morning."
