Hello. Welcome to the Communist Manifesto Project. In this video I just want to clear up a misunderstanding regarding distribution under communism. You may have heard the catchphrase - From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs. Marx uses this expression in the Critique of the Gotha Program.
One thing is clear and that is that the motivation to work is no longer material reward. We will work because we find what we are doing satisfying. Routine work will have been automated and we will no longer have the stifling division of labor that we have under capitalism. Furthermore, we will want to contribute the best we can because we are living and thriving in a society based on mutual regard.
However, where misunderstanding does arise is in what is meant by "to each according to their needs". A lot of people seem to think this means meeting all our needs. In other words we will reach a level of economic development where we can produce absolute abundance. The Wikipedia entry on the topic shares this view.
However, we can never achieve absolute abundance because our needs are infinite. There is an infinite need for faster and faster modes of travel. There is an infinite need for less illness and a longer lifespan. There is no end to improvements in the stuff we need to pursue our hobbies and interests. This may be a better sailing boat or better equipment for our home workshops. And there will never be too many resources devoted to meeting people's need to engage in scientific research.
So the idea of achieving abundance is nonsense but happily it is not what Marx meant.
What Marx meant was that we would not simply get an equal share. Some would get more than others because they have greater needs. For example, they may have more children to look after or have a medical condition that requires expensive treatment. So under communism those with greater needs will receive a bigger share. As a result, instead of to each an equal share we have to each according to their needs. If you look at what Marx says in the Critique of the Gotha Program this is obviously what he meant. I provide a link to that below.
Now while communism does not require an unachievable total abundance, it certainly does require very high material living standards because it would be impossible to create communism on the basis of shared poverty. As a result, we need to see very high levels of economic growth in the poorest parts of the world, not just to eliminate present hardship, which of course is important, but also to provide the necessary conditions for our communist future.
I hope you found that useful. Please check out our other videos and subscribe. See you next time.
Link to Critique of the Gotha Program
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/gotha/ch01.htm
Go down to where Marx discusses this item from the Gotha Program
3. "The emancipation of labor demands the promotion of the instruments of labor to the common property of society and the co-operative regulation of the total labor, with a fair distribution of the proceeds of labor."
This is the most important paragraph in this section and arguably the most important of all quotes from Marx:
"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 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!"
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