Faux Marx

I just got  an email from an investment banking friend of mine with following quote attributed to Karl Marx

Owners of capital will stimulate the working class to buy more and more of expensive goods, houses and technology, pushing them to take more and more expensive credits, until their debt becomes unbearable. The unpaid debt will lead to bankruptcy of banks, which will have to be nationalised, and the State will have to take the road which will eventually lead to communism.

Karl Marx, Das Kapital, 1867

Apparently this has been doing the rounds on Wall St. If you are suspicious that this is actually Marx you have the right to be! The dead give away for me is the reference to buying “technology”. Not sure what technology workers were buying in 1867….

Megan McArdle has a good discussion of this quote here

6 replies
  1. agnitio
    agnitio says:

    The fact that my email didn’t begin with “My friend who used to be an investment banker…” tells all doesn’t it?

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