Social Economics and the Distribution of Social Wealth
In 1896, Walras published the Etudes d’economie sociale, a collection of a dozen articles on the theory of the distribution of social wealth. Although this volume did not have the systematic nature of Elements, its structure is clear, and it speaks for itself: “I.
Seeking the social ideal”, “II. Property”, “III. Realization of the social ideal” and “IV. Taxes”. Based on considerations sometimes ontological (I), Walras lays the foundation for a pure theory of property (II) and develops the necessary measures for the implementation of the theory (III): the abolition of income tax and the repurchase of land by the state.Following a well-established tradition that came down to him through his father, Leon Walras takes up again, already in his early writings, an opinion he himself calls “neo- physiocratic”, consisting of a tax system reduced to “a single tax on rents” (OEC IX: 348). In the general considerations on taxes with which Walras opened his contribution to the 1860 Congres international de l’impot, he expresses a clear position based on the principle of “the identity of the two problems of ownership and taxes”. Starting from the idea that the fruits of labour and savings belong to the natural domain of private property, and that the land belongs to the natural domain of collective property - thus solving the problem of property - Walras intended to solve also the tax issue, “because, since the State would own the land capital, it would levy the land-income; thereby, the amount of rent would become the natural tax” (OEC V: 440). Thus, “conceding the land to the State solves the problem of taxation by abolishing it” (OEC IX: 192 [146]). In fact, the rent would be the only (legitimate) state revenue. The writings in the last part (IV) of Etudes document Walras’s reflections on the transitional phase, when the revenue from land rent accruing to the State is insufficient to finance its operations.