From each according to his ability

“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” is from:

A) Marx’s works
B) The Bible C) The US Constitution

Answer “A” is correct. If you answered “B” you’re close.

A “C” wouldn’t have earned you any points, but you wouldn’t be the only one who erred. In a 1987 poll, nearly half of Americans thought “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need” came from the Constitution.

Marx popularised the phrase in his 1875 Critique of the Gotha Program. The origins are French.

It appears on the cover of Étienne Cabet’s utopian novel “Journey to Icaria” from 1845 and in socialist politician Louis Blanc’s 1848 speeches: Living according to needs is the first right. Working to your ability is the first duty.”

In 1829, followers of French political theorist Henri de Saint-Simon wrote “To each according to his ability; to each according to his works” as an epigraph to L’Organisateur.

Both phrases are in the USSR Constitution, not the US Constitution. Joseph Stalin changed “From each according to his ability” to “To each according to his work” in the 1936 Soviet Constitution.

Community life
Where the Bible fits is the question. Each of Saint-Simon, Cabet, and Blanc, committed Christians whose social programs were inspired by their faith, borrowed these phrases from contemporary French Bible translations and defended them scripturally. These phrases come from French Bible passages, according to economic historian Adrien Lutz and me.

“To each according to his need” comes from Acts, which describes early Christian communities in Jerusalem. In Acts, believers “were together and had everything in common,” selling their possessions and giving the proceeds to neighbours “as anyone had need.”

Cabet describes a fictional community with similar communal customs in “Journey to Icaria”. He later moved to the US and founded ” Icarian communities ” in the second half of the 19th century that practiced communal property ownership and egalitarianism.

“From each according to his ability” is also found in Acts: “So it was that the disciples determined, each according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea .” Cabet and Blanc saw this phrase as urging Christian service. They thought society was a cooperative where the rich should contribute more.

“To each according to his ability” is in Matthew. Before leaving on a journey, a master gives his servants different amounts of money, or talents: “To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one; to each according to his ability.” After returning, he praises the servants who invested the money and increased their allowance, but he condemns the one who buried it and gave it back.

Saint-Simon believed the phrase meant that enterprising and qualified people should get jobs and resources, not the nobility. This would boost productivity, benefiting everyone, especially the poorest.

“To each according to his works” appears throughout the Bible. Paul writes in his Letter to the Romans: “God rewards people according to their deeds. He will give eternal life to those who persevere in doing good for glory, honour, and immortality.”

The First Letter to the Corinthians states, “There is no difference between the one who plants and the one who waters; yet each one will receive his wages according to his work.” St. Paul’s letter rewards individuals based on their achievements, but Corinthians measures individual contributions to the collective effort.

He who will not work, let him not eat.” The Soviet Constitution’s article that uses this phrase also quotes the Second Letter to the Thessalonians: ”

From each according to his ability

By b0oua

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