To Each According to Contribution

Full term is “From each according to his ability, to each according to his contribution”, the rule of distribution according to which, on the basis of socialist public property in the means of production and starting from the actual state of the development of productive forces, all people who have the ability to work are encouraged to do their best to contribute to the society, and after all necessary deductions from the aggregate social product are made, personal consumer goods are distributed according to the quantity and quality of labor provided to society by each worker, and the more one works the more one gets and the less one works the less one gets.

Before Marx, there was the germ of the idea of distribution according to contribution, including the programme of calculating remuneration according to contribution and talent put forth by the Saint-Simonians, and Fourier’s social surmise of “Phalanstéres” of distributing consumer goods according to contribution, capital and talent (including knowledge). In 1839, in his book Labor’s Wrongs and Labor’s Remedy, Bray of England clearly put forth the thought of distribution according to contribution. “Equal labor of all kinds should be equally remunerated.” “The labor of every individual would alone determine his gains of his losses.” Marx put forth the rule of distribution according to contribution for the first time in Capital, pointing out that in the “association of free men” that carries out production with public means of production, “labor-time serves as a measure of the individual producer’s share in common labor and therefore also of the individually consumable portion of common production.” Later, he made a further systematic and profound exposition in the Critique of the Gotha Programme. Marx’s theory of distribution according to contribution mainly includes the following aspects: first, distribution according to contribution takes as its historical premise a society in which the means of production are common ownership of the society and the workers work in common, and in which there is no commodity production and commodity exchange; second, workers become the mainstay of the production process, and the distribution of income is based on labor; third, it is acknowledged that there are income differences in distribution according to contribution; fourth, the object of distribution according to contribution is personal consumer goods after making necessary deductions from the aggregate social product; fifth, distribution according to contribution has the function of regulating the relationship between fairness and efficiency.

The level of development of the productive forces in the socialist society determines the mode of distribution of distribution according to contribution. Engels said: “The mode of distribution essentially depends on how much there is to distribute.” In socialist countries, workers’ labor varies in quantity and quality. When distributing consumer goods, consumer goods must be distributed according to the quantity and quality of labor provided by workers. In fact, it is recognized that the new value created by workers, after making various deductions (compensation fund, value created by labor for society, etc.), the remainder is treated according to the principle of “equal labor receiving equal consumer goods”, i.e., more labor gets more and less labor gets less. The means of consumption allocated to workers by the mode of distribution according to contribution in a socialist society includes three parts: (1) means of subsistence; (2) means of enjoyment; (3) means of development. The forms of distribution according to contribution include: (1) socialist wages (including bonuses); (2) income in the form of joint remuneration in the collectively owned economy; (3) labor points and daily wages in collectively owned agriculture; (4) income of contractors of enterprises which are owned by the whole people and collectively owned enterprises, so forth.

Distribution according to contribution is a fundamental negation of wage-labor, system of exploitation and egalitarianism (levelling), and a correct embodiment of the concrete realization of socialist public property and the principle of socialist material interests. “It recognizes no class differences, because everyone is only a worker like everyone else.” It plays an important role in mobilizing socialist enthusiasm of workers and improving the productivity of labor. However, because of the differences in the labor-capacity of each individual and the size of their families, the income levels and actual living standards of workers are not the same, and there exists both formal equality and actual inequality. So, Marx said, “This equal right is an unequal right for unequal labor.” Marx pointed out: “The same principle prevails as in the exchange of commodity equivalents: a given amount of labor in one form is exchanged for an equal amount of labor in another form. Hence, equal right here is still in principle—bourgeois right.” However, this inequality in distribution is essentially different from that in capitalist system, which is based on the exploitation of man. The inequality in the distribution according to contribution is only a difference in the remuneration of labor; it is an inevitable phenomenon when the level of productive forces in socialist society is not high enough. Differences in distribution according to contribution cannot lead to class differentiation.

Distribution according to contribution is the fundamental rule of distributing personal consumer goods under the socialist system and one of the basic hallmarks of socialism, but it is not the most ideal rule of distribution of human society. At present, China is in the primary stage of socialism. The reality of coexistence of various economic components decides that we can only carry out a mode of distribution with distribution according to contribution as the mainstay and various principles of distribution exist side by side.