Re: (OPE-L) taxation and public finance in Marxian literature

[Ernesto Screpanti <screpanti@xxxxxxxx>]

It might be useful to recall that Marx and Engels, in the Critique of
the Gotha Program, proposed  a social policy of public
expenditure "for the common satisfaction of needs, such as schools,
health services etc. From the outset this part  [of the total
product of society] grows considerably in comparison with present-day
society and grows in proportion as the new society develps." In the
Manifesto  Marx and Engels also proposed a fiscal policy
based on  "a heavy progressive or graduated income tax".
Both measures are envisaged as part of a process of building of a
communist society. 
It is interesting to note that Engels intepreted progressive taxation as
embodying the principle "from each according to his ability".
On the other hand, the public provision of goods at low or zero price
allocates resources on the ground of the principle "to each
according to his needs".

I deal with these problems in my recent essay: "Freedom and Social
Goods: Rethinking Marx's Theory of Communism", Rethinking
Marxism, 16, April 2004, pp. 185-206.

In solidarity 

Ernesto Screpanti