From each according to his ability, to each according to his need
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From each according to his ability, to each according to his need (or
needs) is a slogan popularised by Karl Marx in his 1875 Critique of
the Gotha Program.[1] In German, "Jeder nach seinen Fähigkeiten, jedem
nach seinen Bedürfnissen!". The phrase summarizes the principles that,
in a communist society, every person should contribute to society to
the best of his or her ability and consume from society in proportion
to his or her needs. In the Marxist view, such an arrangement will be
made possible by the abundance of goods and services that a developed
communist society will produce; the idea is that there will be enough
to satisfy everyone's needs.[2][3]
Contents
[hide]
1 Origin of the phrase
2 Debates on the idea
3 See also
4 References
5 External links
[edit] Origin of the phrase
The complete paragraph containing Marx's statement of the creed in the
'Critique of the Gotha Program' is as follows:
In a higher phase of communist society, after the enslaving
subordination of the individual to the division of labor, and
therewith also the antithesis between mental and physical labor, has
vanished; after labor has become not only a means of life but life's
prime want; after the productive forces have also increased with the
all-around development of the individual, and all the springs of
co-operative wealth flow more abundantly—only then can the narrow
horizon of bourgeois right be crossed in its entirety and society
inscribe on its banners: From each according to his ability, to each
according to his needs![1][2][3]
Although Marx is popularly thought of as the originator of the phrase,
the slogan was common to the socialist movement and was first used by
Louis Blanc in 1839, in "The organization of work",[4] as a revision
of a quote by the utopian socialist Henri de Saint Simon, who claimed
that each should be rewarded according to how much he works.[citation
needed] The origin of this phrasing has also been attributed to the
French communist Morelly,[5] who proposed in his 1755 Code of Nature
"Sacred and Fundamental Laws that would tear out the roots of vice and
of all the evils of a society" including
“ I. Nothing in society will belong to anyone, either as a personal
possession or as capital goods, except the things for which the person
has immediate use, for either his needs, his pleasures, or his daily
work.
II. Every citizen will be a public man, sustained by, supported by,
and occupied at the public expense.
III. Every citizen will make his particular contribution to the
activities of the community according to his capacity, his talent and
his age; it is on this basis that his duties will be determined, in
conformity with the distributive laws.[6] ”
[edit] Debates on the idea
Marx delineated the specific conditions under which such a creed would
be applicable—a society where technology and social organization had
substantially eliminated the need for physical labor in the production
of things, where "labor has become not only a means of life but life's
prime want".[7] Marx explained his belief that, in such a society,
each person would be motivated to work for the good of society despite
the absence of a social mechanism compelling them to work, because
work would have become a pleasurable and creative activity. Marx
intended the initial part of his slogan, "from each according to his
ability" to suggest not merely that each person should work as hard as
they can, but that each person should best develop their particular
talents.
Claiming themselves to be at a "lower stage of communism (i.e.,
"socialism", in line with Marx's terminology),[8] the Soviet Union
adapted the formula as: "From each according to his ability, to each
according to his work (labour investment)".[9]
[edit] See also
Communism
He who does not work, neither shall he eat
Jedem das Seine
Socialism
To each according to his contribution
Workers of the world, unite!
[edit] References
^ a b Marx, Karl (1875). "Part I". Critique of the Gotha Program.
Retrieved 2008-07-15.
^ a b Schaff, Kory (2001). Philosophy and the problems of work: a
reader. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 224. ISBN 0-7425-0795-5.
^ a b Walicki, Andrzej (1995). Marxism and the leap to the kingdom
of freedom: the rise and fall of the Communist utopia. Stanford,
Calif: Stanford University Press. p. 95. ISBN 0-8047-2384-2.
^ "à chacun selon ses besoins, de chacun selon ses facultés".
L'Organisation du travail, 1839.
^ Norman E. Bowie, Towards a new theory of distributive justice
(1971, p. 82.
^ Gregory Titelman, Random House dictionary of popular proverbs &
sayings (1996), p. 108.
^ Part 1, Critique of the Gotha Programme,
http://www.marxists.org, quoting Marx/Engels Selected Works, Volume
Three, p. 13-30.
^ Ken Post; Phil Wright (1989). Socialism and underdevelopment.
Routledge. p. 11. ISBN 9780415016285.
^ Geoffrey Jukes (1973). The Soviet Union in Asia. University of
California Press. p. 225. ISBN 9780520023932.
Cohen, G. A. (1995). "Self-ownership, communism, and equality:
against the Marxist technological fix". Self-ownership, freedom, and
equality. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN
0-521-47751-4.
[edit] External links
Critique of the Gotha Program (includes Marx's original use of the slogan)
Marxism and Ethics
What Does the Bible Say About Communism & Socialism?