Watching this video published on Financial Times Chinese edition recently reminded me Frederick Engels’ The Condition of the Working Class in England published in 1845. In Chapter The Attitude of the Bourgeoisie Towards the Proletariat, Engels’ wrote: “I have never seen a class so deeply demoralised, so incurably debased by selfishness, so corroded within, so incapable of progress, as the English bourgeoisie; and I mean by this, especially the bourgeoisie proper, particularly the Liberal, Corn Law repealing bourgeoisie. For it nothing exists in this world, except for the sake of money, itself not excluded. It knows no bliss save that of rapid gain, no pain save that of losing gold. In the presence of this avarice and lust of gain, it is not possible for a single human sentiment or opinion to remain untainted”. Reading these words after more than one and half centuries since it was published and more than one and half decades since I read in college, it is as contemporary and relevant as ever in today’s China!

As the end of the report, Engels declared the following: “If these conclusions have not been sufficiently established in the course of the present work, there may be other opportunities for demonstrating that they are necessary consequences of the historical development of England. But this I maintain, the war of the poor against the rich now carried on in detail and indirectly will become direct and universal. It is too late for a peaceful solution. The classes are divided more and more sharply, the spirit of resistance penetrates the workers, the bitterness intensifies, the guerrilla skirmishes become concentrated in more important battles, and soon a slight impulse will suffice to set the avalanche in motion. Then, indeed, will the war-cry resound through the land: “War to the mansion, peace to the cottage!” — but then it will be too late for the rich to beware”.

Let’s doing something before that happens.