Liberty-based optimum distribution and taxation

Unanimous opinion, supported by our basic rights and by reflective philosophy, happens to hold that optimum income taxation and distribution are not to be determined by individual utilities and a social welfare function. There fore, the criterion is an equality in liberties: social freedom (our constitutional basic rule), and equal total freedom respecting it and Pareto efficiency. The resulting tax or subsidy, which is incentive-compatible, amounts, equivalently, to an equal sharing of the product of the same labour (with different productivities), to a basic income financed by equal labours, to a general reciprocity of transfers of the product of the same labour, or to a basic income and a flat tax exempting overtime work. The required information is available and the scheme can be introduced by classical reforms.

Liberty-based optimum distribution and taxation