The implicit ethical assumption behind economic egalitarianism is that nature has "unfairly" allocated different levels of ability to different individuals and that the economic consequences of this "injustice" need to be redressed, by force if necessary. The irrationality of this view has already been discussed in Section 3 (pp. 3.10:21-4,) where it was shown that the concept of justice properly applies only to human actions, and not to nature at large. Even if one adheres to this mistaken ethical view, however, economic egalitarianism seems to suffer from another limitation: it fails to address natural differences in the physical needs of different individuals, who may require different quantities of goods and services for their survival. For instance, under a system based on "economic equality," persons who suffer from life-threatening illnesses requiring exorbitantly expensive medical treatment receive the same incomes as do healthy persons. Marxism can be seen as an attempt to remedy this defect.
Government as Means to a Marxist
Economy
In the ideal economy as envisioned by Karl Marx, each citizen would produce "according to his ability" and receive "according to his need." Although the state was eventually supposed to "wither away" under such a system, no such withering has of course been observed in the various communist régimes of the last century based on Marx's ideas. A Marxist economy, like a system based on "economic equality," requires the forcible seizure of goods from "over-producers" and therefore can be implemented only through a coercive governmental apparatus. 
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