From each according to his ability, to each according to his need

From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs (or need) is maxim popularised by Karl Marx in Critique of the Gotha program, published in 1875. The German original is Jeder nach seinen Fähigkeiten, jedem nach seinen Bedürfnissen. According to Marx, once a communist society has been established, it will produce enough goods and services so that everyone's needs can be satisfied.

Even though the phrase is commonly attributed to Marx, he was not the first to use it. The slogan was common within the socialist movement. Louis Blanc first used it in 1839, in "The organization of work". "à chacun selon ses besoins, de chacun selon ses facultés". L'Organisation du travail, 1839. The origin of this phrasing has also been attributed to the French communist Étienne-Gabriel Morelly,Norman E. Bowie, Towards a new theory of distributive justice (1971, p. 82. 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 the following:

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Category:Socialism