Comment by impossiblefork
3 days ago
As a westerner who has at least to some degree been influenced by socialism ideologically, but who perhaps isn't a communist (I don't know what my ideology really is-- and who does), I don't necessarily dislike welfare, but I don't want to build society on it. Instead I want some element of an actual 'to each according to his contribution'-type thing with an exception so that we treat disabled people and others who can't work or who for different reasons end up being unproductive in an acceptable way.
So I don't think this is necessarily unusual in the west either, especially not if you look back to 1950s or 1960s Swedish social democrats.
I think that’s what everybody wants. The problem is the statement 'to each according to his contribution' is subjective. Weighing “contribution” in a way everyone agrees on just hasn’t materialized. It’s probably going to get harder too as technology improves and changes more and more rapidly.