ABSTRACT
Let us turn now to the Social Ownership of Property as an alternative means for combining an efficient level of the real wage rate with an equitable distribution of income. Suppose that by the wave of some alternative magic wand—and we will later examine the nature of this wand—the ownership of all property were transferred from private individuals to the State. The real wage rate is set at the level which enables it to be used exclusively as an ‘efficiency’ guide for the use of labour. If this ‘efficiency’ level is a low one, then a large part of the national income accrues as profits on capital of all kinds. But these profits now go to the State, which could use them to pay out an equal social dividend to every citizen. In one basic respect this system is the same as a system in which property is privately owned but is owned in equal amounts by every citizen. In both cases income from property is equally divided between all citizens.
