That is precisely why “from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs” fails. People are clever at hiding abilities, and demonstrating needs. There will be people who will be good at hiding income, others will work less, earn less, and, therefore, produce less, and oops, there goes the economy, and the tax revenues to pay the subsidies.
Excellent Point I have not seen put forth elsewhere.
Work you do for yourself is not yet directed taxed either.
I *NEED* a 500 bedroom mansion with solid gold, silver, and platinum inlaid tiles encrusted with diamonds, rubies, and sapphires.
I *NEED* a waitstaff and a 500-car garages, complete with autocenter and engineer for engine/suspension tuning. I *NEED* 500 exotic sportcars to fill the garage.
I *NEED* at least $800 million per year to barely make my ends meet.
I *NEED* all of Hugh Hefner’s Playboy bunnies to be my personal attendents.
I *NEED* a fleet of interstellar starships armed with neato energy and kinetic weaponry for my *NEED* to reach out and conquer the galaxy.
Oh, and I *NEED* the planets Mars, Jupiter, Neptune, and Uranus... plus the star systems Betelgeuse, Alpha Centauri, Canopus, and Sirius.
These are very small needs, you see... and to deny them would be to strip me of my basic human right to have my needs fufilled.
As for my abilities... well, I can wiggle my thumb for about 15 second a day, so it’s all good!
Ain’t Communism grand!
:-P
Of course, people are not farm animals with perceived abilities for the private usage of heads of states. This communist dictatorship stuff is way in over its head. I cannot figure why the sheeple still accepts this theft and exploitation.