Ability-Need and Supply-Demand

In Marx's formulation, "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs", Ability and Need are conceived as systematic poles, analogous to Supply and Demand in the Capitalist model. Analogously, the challenge is the coordination of the two, though whether via an immanent 'law', as Smith posits, or by artefactual means, depends on whether or not the Marxist attributes the process to a necessary Dialectical movement. One notable precedent of that formulation is easy to overlook because of its class-stratification--the polis of The Republic, which, regardless of those details, attempts to correlate the psychological capacity of each of its members, to the vital needs, i. e. the "necessity", of such an organization.