Causes of the European debt crisis historian Robert Skidelsky added that it was indeed excessive lending by banks, not deficit spending that created this crisis. Government's mounting debts are a response to the economic downturn as spending rises and tax revenues fall, not its cause. Either way, high debt levels alone may not explain the crisis. According to The Economist Intelligence Unit, the position of the euro area looked "no worse and in some respects, rather better than that of the US or the UK." The budget deficit for the euro area as a whole (see graph) is much lower and the euro area's government debt/GDP
To each according to his contribution concept also formed the basic definition of socialism for its pre-Marxist proponents, including Ricardian socialists, classical economists, and individualist anarchists. "To each according to his contribution" was a concept espoused by many members of the socialist and labor movement. Examples of this can be found from Ferdinand Lassalle's and Eugen Dühring's statements to Leon Trotsky's writings. However, it was Vladimir Lenin, inspired by Marx's writing on the subject in his "Critique of the Gotha Programme", who claimed the principle to be a fundamental element of socialism within Marxist theory. Libertarian socialist thinkers, such as American anarchist Benjamin Tucker, defined socialism