Abstract:

Productive contribution measured in terms of market value has been considered as the decisive criterion for resource distribution due to the transition from status to contract. But this hinders us intellectually from imaging social fairness and the ideal of common prosperity. The evaluation of productive contributions by referencing market value is technically unreliable, and it is of little ethical significance. A prior social imaginary as a reference frame in which economy and market are embedded is necessary for both rational evaluation of contributions and the pursuit of egalitarian distribution. In this social imaginary beyond the market model, a common asset irreducible to individual productive contributions constitutes the material and ethical foundation of common prosperity, and it widens the spectrum of values within which we think about the notion of contribution. People can contribute in non-productive forms during the diachronic social reproduction, and thus earn social recognition and dignity.

Key words: the notion of contribution, productive contribution, social imaginary, common asset, common prosperity