From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs

Slogan popularised by Karl Marx

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" (Jeder nach seinen Fähigkeiten, jedem nach seinen Bedürfnissen) is a slogan popularised by Karl Marx in his 1875 Critique of the Gotha Programme. The principle refers to free access to and distribution of goods, capital and services. In the Marxist view, such an arrangement will be made possible by the abundance of goods and services that a developed communist system will be capable to produce; the idea is that, with the full development of socialism and unfettered productive forces, there will be enough to satisfy everyone's needs.

In Ayn Rand's 1957 pro capitalist novel Atlas Shrugged, a large and profitable motor company adopted this slogan as its method for determining employee compensation. The system quickly fell prey to corruption and greed, forcing the most capable employees to work overtime in order to satisfy the needs of the least competent and to funnel money to the owners. As a result, the company went bankrupt within four years. In Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel The Handmaid's Tale, members of a dystopian society recited the phrase thrice daily. Notably the phrase is altered to read "From each according to her ability; to each according to his need", demonstrating a perversion of the phrase's original intention by Atwood's fictional society. Mirroring the sentiment of Frederick C. Hicks, in Vladimir Voinovich's 1986 novel Moscow 2042, the slogan was parodied in the context of "communism in one city". In Moscorep (Moscow Communist Republic) Voinovich portrays various hilarious absurdities related to the implementation of the concept of "needs". The concept was introduced as follows: " 'I see,' I said. 'But who defines his needs? He himself?' 'But this would be metaphysics, Hegelianism and Kantianism!' exclaimed Propaganda Paramonovna." Further, the protagonist was explained that a man is insufficiently qualified to determine his needs and special committees, "Pentagrams", do this.