QUORA: 'Aren't capitalist principles of supply and demand similar to communist principles of ability and need?'

QUORA *: Aren't capitalist principles of supply and demand similar to communist principles of ability and need?

My Answer:

No.

First of all, the law of supply and demand is a law of economics, not a capitalist principle. A capitalist principle applies in that the individual sell and buy decisions that cumulatively represent “supply and demand” be strictly voluntary--that all supply (production) be the result of people freely exercising their rights to work for his own livelihood, each keeping and using what he earns, each filling his own “demand” through voluntary trade with others for mutual benefit, each in accordance with his own self-interest.

The communist principles of ability and need--“From each according to his ability to each according to his need”--holds that government must forcibly commandeer all earnings for the purpose of distributing the proceeds according to what it determines are each person’s needs, regardless of each person’s productive contribution and regardless of the actual needs, personal choices, or self-interest of any individual.

The capitalist principles relating to the economic law of supply and demand and communist principle of “From each according to his ability to each according to his need” are antithetical, on principle. The crucial differences are several; voluntarism vs. force, justice vs. injustice, individual self-determination vs. central control, rights-protecting constitutional government vs. totalitarianism, freedom vs. slavery.

Related Reading:

QUORA *: ‘Why do people find communism so terrifying as an idea?’

Why Capitalism Needs a Moral Sanction

The Dollar and the Gun—Harry Binswanger


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