No One Should Have Less:

J. E. Meade’s Social Dividend in the Years of ‘High Theory’

In the 1930s some economists began arguing that redistributive schemes would «have beneficial consequences for both maximising economic output and achieving a more efficient use of material resources». This argument stemmed from the conscious realization that moral arguments were insufficient to justify the introduction of egalitarian policies; it was also believed that neoclassical theory «was actually ripe for approbation for egalitarian ends» . The aim of this work is to look at how the concept of social welfare is developed in the works of James Edward Meade (1907 – 1995) one of the leading economists of the time who partook in the passionate discussions on income maintenance policies as suitable counter-cyclical devices, that deserved a place in the economist’s toolkit (1935, 1936, 1948). This paper will especially focus on Meade’s proposal of implementing what he called Social Dividend, a mechanism aimed at redistributing profits made by publicly owned enterprises thereby connecting citizens not with the means of subsistence, but rather with the means of production.