From Each, According to His Ability; To Each, According to His Needs

In recent days I've taught a couple of classes about North Korean refugees. The kids here have a fairly decent grasp of North Korean affairs. When you ask them about their neighbors to the North, almost all of the students will mention that everyone gets paid the same amount of money no matter what they do. I would imagine that they are routinely taught that the old Marxist maxim "from each, according to his abilities; to each, according to his needs" is antithetical to the work ethic demanded by a highly competitive capitalist society like South Korea.

I'm not sure I have the heart to tell them about the existence, even in capitalist countries, of silver-spoon fed dimwits who succeed on the strength of ill-gotten family wealth and connections despite idiocy, indolence, and intoxication.