Steve over at The Skeptical Optimist is pondering an interesting quandary.
I'm stuck on what seems like a flaw in the the basis for marxist/socialist thought. According to Marx's labor theory of value, the individual worker does not receive full value for his production, because the greedy, exploitive capitalist pockets a portion for himself. Whether or not that is true, here's the apparent logical inconsistency...
The paradox: Given the labor theory of value, why does one of the main guiding principles of socialism/marxism/communism say:
"...to each according to his need"
as opposed to:
"...to each according to his production"?
If this apparent logical flaw was truly a mistake by marxism's slogan-crafters (aside from the sexism), then it seems to me the full slogan should have been as follows:
"From each according to his ability, to each according to his production."
The numerous comments on his post go on to analyze the marxist/pre-communist/socialist/liberal tendences of that conundrum, but the manufacturing geek in me is a bit more intrigued by the flow characteristics. Push versus pull, supply versus demand. The flow of value. Is the flow toward someone in need, or toward a provider? Is demand flow marxist?
Beats me; I've got a headache.