> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.kevinmeyer.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Marxist Flow?
- URL: https://www.kevinmeyer.com/marxist-flow/
- Published: 2008-02-16T05:40:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-05-10T17:50:31.000Z
- Author: Kevin Meyer
- Tags: Beyond Manufacturing, #Migrated-1752356847400, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-07-12 14:48

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.