Our pen pal economist Mark Skousen pointed out to us this story of the central contradictions of socialism. We paraphrase from his write up:

On December 25, 1895, 19-year-old Jack London, who would go on to one day become famous as the author of “The Call of the Wild,” wrote an article for the San Francisco Examiner called “What Socialism Is.”

In it, he exposed the contradictions of the famous Marxist dictum “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”

It sounds good: “You work hard, and you get what you need.”

But as London wrote, the appealing motto is naive and lacks incentives to produce beyond one’s needs.

The Marxist ideal amounts to a 100% marginal tax on everything you earn beyond your needs.

So London cleverly swapped Marx’s famous word “needs” for “deeds”!

“From each according to his ability, to each according to his deeds.”

That’s capitalism! You work hard, and you keep what you earn beyond your needs. More than a century later, otherwise intelligent people can’t figure that out.

Jack London: Socialism Slayer