Engels borned rich, what exactly should he do? Give all his money? That's not Marxism, that's franciscanism. What we can say is: he used good part of his money to actually changes the world, funding revolts across Europe as well as the international communist movement as a whole. Furthermore, as soon as he took over his father's business he took care to significantly improve the working AND living conditions of his factory workers. Still, it could be argued that he should have reproduced the phalanstery, but Marxism has a critical view on that.

EDIT: Sorry, if wasn't so late here in Brasil I would sent some fonts on what I wrote. My bad.

EDIT 2: Mao was too a kind of rich, at least, richer than most of China in his days. He didn't have all his money to charaty or something like that, but after the revolution, his family farmland was the first to be collectivised.

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He was a class traitor simple as. Many people operate against the benefits of their own class. Just as some of the underclass will sell out their fellow workers for a portion of the loot, some of the ruling class will act to dismantle the system of looting. While class is important, it is not the end all be all to understanding a person.

Also the unfortunate truth is that most people who are going to be able to gain a stronger theoretical understanding of capitalism, economics, philosophy, etc. require leisure time in order to do that. And leisure time requires money

Who else was going to pay Marx's rent?

It's a reactive argument. The person saying it doesn't care, otherwise they'd be outraged that everyone running our capitalist society is richer than God. People just want a quick dunk so they can turn off their brains and go about their day.

You just ignore it, it's not an actual argument.

It's the old "you disagree with society, yet you participate in it" argument.

One does not have an option to participate in society, so might as well do well in society. Just try to exploit as little as possible in this exploitative society, and try to contribute towards socialism (or whatever you believe) in whatever way you can, just like Engels did.

'Okay, but how does that make him wrong?'

Or 'There were plenty of poor people who had similar ideas at the time and couldn't afford the education, time, or connections to have their work published.'

Or 'If he was poor you'd say he couldn't know enough about wealthy people'

Or just pull out a glossy 8x10 of PPB and hand it to them.

Communism seeks to overthrow the capitalist system.

Being the most ethical person to ever live under capitalism isn't sufficient to overthrow capitalism.

That's individualist nonsense and that makes you, may Allah forgive me for uttering this word, an Albanian a liberal.

His positive impact on history outweighed the negative impact of his wealth hoarding. It's really that simple.

"And?"

Say "me too" and pull down your collar to reveal your gold chains

Agree that this is a fact. Now ask how it is relevant.

"He was willing to put bullets into his fellow bougie's skulls, so he gets a pass."