How did Marx imagine goods and services would be distributed in a communist society?

Karl Marx intentionally avoided providing detailed blueprints for a future communist society, famously stating that it was not his task to write "recipes for the kitchens of the future". He believed that the specific institutions of a communist society should be determined democratically by the people living within it.1

However, Marx did outline the general principles for the distribution of goods and services in a fully realized communist society. He envisioned a system characterized by the public ownership of the major means of production, where distribution would be based on the principle: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs".12

Marx distinguished this from a transitional phase following the overthrow of capitalism. In this earlier, socialist stage, he acknowledged that society would still find it necessary to distribute goods and pay individuals based on the duration, intensity, and quality of their labor. It was only in the second, fully realized phase of communism—a society without class divisions or a state—that the distribution of resources would shift entirely to the "needs-based" principle.2