The ethical standard used in criticizing capitalism was, accordingly, Marx’s slogan in Critique of the Gotha Program: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”[268] Satisfying need was thus the fundamental criterion of morality. Yet come the 1950s it was hard to argue that capitalism fails to satisfy its people’s needs. In fact, a big part of the problem seemed to be that capitalism had satisfied its people’s needs so well that the people had become fat and complacent and not at all revolutionary. So a moral standard that made satisfying needs primary was now useless
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