FROM EACH ACCORDING TO THEIR ABILITY

The slogan 'From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs' serves as the moral and economic cornerstone of a fully realized communist society, popularized by Karl Marx in his 1875 Critique of the Gotha Program. The phrase encapsulates a vision of a post-scarcity world where labour is no longer a coerced means of survival, but rather a voluntary contribution to the collective good. In this framework, individuals contribute to society based on their unique talents and capacities, while the distribution of resources is decoupled from productivity; instead, goods and services are allocated to ensure everyone’s well-being, regardless of their work output. Marx argued that this principle could only be applied in a "higher phase" of communist society, after the productive forces had increased sufficiently to provide an abundance for all.