By now you will no doubt have received a copy of the quote recited below:

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 nationalized, and the State will have to take the road which will eventually lead to communism.

— Karl Marx, 1867, Das Kapital

It sure goes a long way to prove that this bank crisis has been in the works ever since Marx hatched his plan to socialize the world, doesn't it?

Well, it might. The only problem is, this "quote" is as phony as it is fascinating.

Now how do I know that, you say?

The following link goes to a full and unexpurgated version of Das Kapital that you can download:

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/index.htm

The version is in English, but that is not a problem. I did an electronic search (pressing “Ctrl-F”), searching each chapter only for the word “bank” because that is a term that has an unequivocal single rendition in English from German ("die Bank" in that language, no alternative English renditions exist) and even a very loose translation would have to contain the word "bank." Out of a total of 34 chapters and quite a few afterwords and prefaces, I found the word, in its meaning as a financial institution, only in Chapters 1 and 3. I found it in its irrelevant meaning as a river bank in some chapters and also as a “pit bank,” presumably part of a coal mine, in at least one chapter (15), and, finally, with reference to a British Bank Act in chapter 34.

That’s it.

I wouldn’t have gone to so much trouble, but this quote is cluttering up the entire internet and it is obviously a hoax because, firstly, the term “technology” as used here clearly refers to an item that is widely marketed to the middle class by skilled marketers, such as electronic gadgets. At the time Das Kapital was written, the modern bicycle had just been invented and was about the only thing resembling consumer technology then available. 

Secondly, Marx was dedicated almost exclusively to showing the philosophical and historical implications of economic phenomena. He did not enter into such fine details about how the banking system would bring itself down.

Unfortunately, the few web sites that have taken up the issue of this quote's authenticity did no real scientific research, but just speculated. Even Snopes came to no firm conclusion.

Some people have asked me why people bother to make up these phony quotes.

There are at least 2 possible explanations:

1. The hoaxes are planted by conservatives who aren't content to merely use the over-abundance of facts on hand to defeat the Left.
    
2. They are planted by shrewd leftists to trip up conservatives.

In this case, the quote supports the Left because, like Engels, Marx believed in the inevitability of communism’s success as the fulfillment of what they called a “historical imperative.” Communism was to be ushered in on the back of capitalism quite spontaneously as the state “withers away.” This has traditionally been the accepted interpretation of their writings (notwithstanding that it contradicts other things communists have written about the violent aspect of the proletarian struggle).

This quote is clearly aimed at supporting the popular old leftist theory that communism would come about naturally with capitalism being a precursor to it, because it tries to show that the banks, an arm of capitalism, help sow the seeds of its natural demise. The unmistakable message is that capitalism is not self-sustaining and requires State intervention, and if it were true, the average person would have to admit that the advent of communism (or socialism) is not only an inevitable consequence of capitalism’s flawed design but a welcome solution to the problem.

Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. Keen observers know that the banks did not die a natural death in America and elsewhere. They were in fact killed by government interference through the shotgun marriage between the State and business, as typified by semi-government organizations Fanny and Freddy, and with the enforcement of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) demanding that the “underserved communities” (minorities) be given the same percentage of loans – with no down payment or proof of employment required – as groups that traditionally repay their loans,

But after the crash the Left immediately put out the word that the capitalist system was destroying itself through lack of regulation, just the opposite of what actually had happened.

It worked. Obama, whose Red Guard-type organization ACORN had, ironically, contributed heavily to the enforcement of the CRA, got elected on the strength of this myth. He would “save” the economy by supplanting it with socialism. And no one would notice, because conservatives and libertarians aren’t smart enough to figure things like this out.

This Marx “quote” is a part of that same propaganda effort. It behooves us to recognize it for what it is.

Donald Hank is a former language teacher, currently operating a technical translation agency in Wrightsville, PA. He holds an undergraduate degree in French and German from Millersville State University (PA), a Master’s degree in Russian language and literature from Kutztown State College (also in PA), has studied Chinese for 3 years in Taiwan at the Mandarin Training Center, and is self-taught in other languages, having logged a total of 8 years abroad in total immersion situations. He is also the founder of Lancaster-York Non-Custodial Parents, a volunteer organization that provides Christian counseling for non-custodial parents.

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danwhitehead1 said:

	Further proof - - - - - - that the "liberal" left just loves to lie. They like to steal too.
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March 04, 2009
Votes: -1

archtoplee said:

	... Im "Facebooking" this article to get the lefties riled up.
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March 04, 2009
Votes: +0

capo said:

	Still could be an endgame to capitalism we don't like Donald, What's your take on this chart and the analysis below it?
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March 05, 2009 | url
Votes: +0

weed said:

sad but true the sad fact of the alleged karl marx quote is that it is absolutely accurate, regardless of whether he said it or not. capitalism, without a moral compass to temper the greed and excess, becomes a ravenous lion, devouring everything and everyone in it's path. but the saddest part of all of this, the part that is unbelievable to me, is that americans believe all the propaganda and lies and buy into consumerism like it is the second advent. "live for today" we cry, "for tomorrow we shall surely die"; and so we dance, and it is now time to pay the fiddler. will anyone wake up and say "maybe my soul is more important than this collection of refuse that clogs my life and binds me as a slave"? history shows us that this has never happened, and that, my friends, is the saddest fact of all.

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March 05, 2009
Votes: -2

Peter Steele said:

RE: Don't lie to people my parents warned me and I've told the truth about Vietnam Dad always spoke the truth as he did to the Daughters of the American Revolution in Greenwich. He was very much an individual and not a collective. He and my late mother are in heaven for both spoke God's word and the truth. I have Golitsyn's excellent books as he made me an authority on the KGB/FSB or Russia. I told the truth about the sad fact that 58,226 men died fighting in Vietnam while our own politicians stayed here, got us in the war, and lost it. Dad was saddened by the tragedy even though he tried to help our country during that conflict. BGen Peter F. Steele, USMC [Ret]

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March 06, 2009
Votes: -1

RichardR369 said:

	Greed Tempered Capitalism was supposed to be tempered by our Christian values. That's why our Founding Fathers stated such in the Federalist Papers. If we don't guide ourselves, vicious rulers will.
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March 06, 2009
Votes: +4

Thomas Paine said:

Time is running out on Freedom We at JBS must begin to address in the open the 911 facts. We must talk about all the witnessess and find out the truth. (See AE for 911 truth, 911 truth, etc). If this was a fraud, as it appears it was. All this financial mess is all tied together. JBS knows the evil of the CFR and New World Order. Larry McDonald died fighting it. We must force the truth in the open so we quit decieving ourselves as to what is going on here.

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March 08, 2009
Votes: -1

suciu said:

the laws that aren't changing for the moment are the gravity an the humanity.. the rest are made out of just letters Learn, educate yourself. interarct whith others. like mother theresa said "Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person" the human value will prevail, not capital, not banks, not corporate drones and definitely not money or guns or religion. with the human value at the core of the existence the state will be obsolete. don't join any movement. just think for yourselves and learn. it will be enough.

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March 12, 2009
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