Posted by Jim Lindgren:
Illinois’s special shame continues: Governor Confuses Democracy with Socialism.
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_03_15-2009_03_21.shtml#1237264607
Pat Quinn, our new governor � who seems to be a decent enough guy
though a bit of a dim bulb � [1]on Monday seems to have confused one
of Karl Marx�s and Joseph Stalin's most famous slogans with a
democratic principle.
[Illinois] Governor Pat Quinn . . . says, "There will be some that
will have a higher tax burden -- but it�ll be based on the
principle that all of us in a democracy can believe in: ability to
pay. My philosophy is to cut taxes on as many people as possible in
Illinois."
However, the Governor wouldn't comment on reports he wants to raise
the state income tax [from its current three percent] to four and a
half percent.
The governor says families of four making less than about
57�thousand dollars a year won't see their taxes go up.
The idea that contributions should be �from each according to his
ability� to pay or otherwise contribute is half of the ultimate goal
of an [2]advanced Marxist state:
In a higher phase of communist society, after the enslaving
subordination of the individual to the division of labor, and
therewith also the antithesis between mental and physical labor,
has vanished; after labor has become not only a means of life but
life's prime want; after the productive forces have also increased
with the all-around development of the individual, and all the
springs of co-operative wealth flow more abundantly�only then can
the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be crossed in its entirety
and society inscribe on its banners: From each according to his
ability, to each according to his needs!
Karl Marx, Critique of the Gotha Program.
In the 1936 Soviet Constitution, Joseph Stalin included Governor
Quinn�s principle as half of the [3]general principle of socialism:
"The principle applied in the U.S.S.R. is that of socialism: From
each according to his ability, to each according to his work."
References
1. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29684242/
2.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_each_according_to_his_ability,_to_each_according_to_his_need
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_each_according_to_his_contribution
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