John Rawls, "Some Reasons for the Maximin Criterion," American Economic Review 64 (1974): 141–6.

Excerpt:

“Recently the maximin criterion of distributive equity has received some attention from economists in connection with the problem of optimal income taxation…What I shall do is to summarize briefly some of the reasons for taking the maximin criterion seriously. I should emphasize that the maximin equity criterion and the so-called maximin rule for choice under uncertainty are two very different things. I shall formulate the reasons for the equity criterion so that they are completely independent from this rule.”

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