"I forsook the company and the dinner-parties, the port-wine and champagne of the middle-classes, and devoted my leisure-hours almost exclusively to the intercourse with plain working men; I am both glad and proud of having done so. Glad, because thus I was induced to spend many a happy hour in obtaining a knowledge of the realities of life—many an hour, which else would have been wasted in fashionable talk and tiresome etiquette; proud, because thus I got an opportunity of doing justice to an oppressed and calumniated class of men who with all their faults and under all the disadvantages of their situation, yet command the respect of every one but an English money-monger."
Engels takes it upon himself to make amends with the working class. He stops spending time with his social peers and devotes his attention to the lower class. Through these varied associations he learns to value himself differently, without allowing money to influence his self-image. He views himself as a benefactor to these people.
"The bourgeoisie has gained a monopoly of all means of existence in the broadest sense of the word. What the proletarian needs, he can obtain only from this bourgeoisie, which is protected in its monopoly by the power of the state. The proletarian is, therefore, in law and in fact, the slave of the bourgeoisie, which can decree his life or death."
This basic argument is the one which Engels presents to Marx when they begin cooperating. He believes that the sheer wealth of the upper class has allowed them to own the essentials of life and charge the lower class for their use. This leads the working class -- proletarian -- has thus become enslaved to the upper class -- bourgeoisie.
"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."
Engels portrays the upper class as a money-hungry machine. These people have sold themselves to greed and thus lost all humanity. In Engels' opinion this love of wealth has made the upper class deplorable and disgusting, indulging in every impulse because they can afford to make mistakes.
"The way in which the vast mass of the poor are treated by modern society is truly scandalous. They are herded into great cities where they breathe a fouler air than in the countryside which they have left."
One of Engels primary arguments against the oppression of the working class is the decreased life expectancy of these people resulting from industrialization. Pollution has lead to such terrible air quality that factory workers and city dwellers are becoming increasingly sick and dying of corrupted lungs. This is not even to mention the rapid spread of disease in the metropolitan setting because of overcrowding and poor sanitation.
