Approaching Equality
What Can Be Done About Wealth Inequality?
Roger A. McCain
Extract
The famous slogan “to each according to need, from each according to ability” stems not from Marx but from the democratic socialist Louis Blanc, and Marx dismissed it as obsolete. Nevertheless programs of distribution according to need played a key role in the class-compromise that characterized successful developed countries in the twentieth century. The logic of “need” is discussed. Since needs are satiable, it may be that distribution according to need will play less part in the future, but health needs are an apparent exception.
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