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As one smart guy said long time ago, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”.
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Smart guy? Who? Karl Marx?
I agree with you that ability is largely a genetic accident. I call it the DNA lottery. I make decent money because I am good with computers and can automate getting a lot done with little physical effort, but a lot of mental effort and creativity. To a degree I earned it because I went to school to learn computer science and worked my tail off to learn it as best I could and get good grades. But to a degree I recognize that I was born with a predisposition for it, some freakish gift that my synapses are wired just so that analytical reasoning comes easily to me. Is it fair? Maybe not. But should I be punished for the misfortune of being born with ability? What justice would there be in that? And how much incentive would I feel to employ my natural born gifts if I am required to bear a disproportionate load? I’d be better served to fein disability, and claim extraordinary needs.
esmith, you are taking it too far to the other extreme. The key is to try to have empathy for everyone. Put yourself in the shoes of anyone in society. What if you had by accident been born with a predisposition to practice medicine. Would you want socialized medicine? Would you want to be essentially enslaved by the government? What if you had been born in poverty with below average intelligence and no hope of acquiring white collar skills? Would you want a purely capitalistic meritocracy? The tough thing is that no system is fair to everyone. But some systems are so extremely unfair to some segment of the population that they are down right oppressive. If you want full blown communism, from those with ability to those with needs, well, as John Lennon said:
If you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao
You ain’t gonna make it with anyone any how
