Thursday 11 December 2008

The Sun and Marxism

Today's Sun leader column supports the government's plans to "get tough" on "scroungers".

Nothing unexpected you might think. However, in doing so it has a go against "Labour Lefties" and in "support" of its position quotes Karl Marx's famous saying "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs" which it says shows that "the welfare state was never intended to be a gravy train for freeloaders."

While I shouldn't need to state the obvious fact that not every unemployed person is a "freeloader", e.g. people who have been laid off over the last 18 months due to the economic downturn, the quote doesn't mean that.

It actually means that people get what they need no matter how much they have contributed to society.

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