.
>
>Justin wrote:
>
> > Oh, like Marx, I do hold this, for those able to work. "From each
>according
> > to his abilities, to each according to his needs." . . . . I don't think
>that
> > citizens of the socialist commonwealth should be allowed to exploit
>other
> > citizens by loafing while others work for them. .
>
>The context in which Marx asserts this as the ultimate principle of
>distributive justice - a principle characteristic not of "socialism" but of
>"a higher phase of communist society" - includes the claim that, for a set
>of individuals for whom the principle would be practicable (a set of what
>Marx elsewhere calls "universally developed individuals" - the product of
>"the all-around development of the individual" made possible by the
>conditions characteristic of the "higher phase of communist society"),
>"labour has become not only a means of life but life's prime want"..
>
>It is, consequently, a characteristic of Marx's "higher form of communist
>society" that there are no longer any individuals who wish "to exploit
>other
>citizens by loafing while others work for them". .
A quotation from Marx answes all objections. I bow before die heiligi Schrift. But seriously, first, Marx is quite clear that "from each . . . to each" is not a principle of distribute justice, because justice requiires treating like individuals alike, and there are no relevantly like individuals. Second, I am not a communist. I am not talking about a sociery based on Marxian ideals, no markets or state, etc. I regard that as impossible and probably undesirable. I am talking about market socialism, with people mucha s we know them now, though behaving differently becauyse responding to a different set of incentives. If there is worker self-management, work will probably be more pleasant. People will therefore be less likely to shirk. But not wholly unlikely to do so. Moreover there will always be difficult, dirty, dangerous, and tedious work. Ever able bodied person will have to perform her share of that work, as well as the more pleasant work, in any just society. If you want to say that a non-Marxist like me is not entitled to appropriater a Marxian slogan for my purpose, fine, I don't care. The point is not what Marx said, but what rules we will have to have. A rule allowing anyone who wants to do nothing, or to avoid the unpleasant work, is not just, not stable, and not acceptable. It was an ol old red slogan, directed against the bosses, Who does no work, shall not eat. I can sign on that. jks
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