A Brief History of Basic Income

The idea of BI is not a completely new one. In 1516, exactly 500 years before the Swiss people rejected a referendum on the implementation of a basic income scheme, Sir Thomas More [1] wrote his book “De optimo rei publicae statu deque nova insula Utopia” depicting a fictional society – Utopia, which literally translates from Greek as “no place” – where every citizen has an income from state.

No penalty on earth will stop people from stealing if it is their only way of getting food. […] It would be far more to the point to provide everyone with some means of livelihood. (Morus, 1518)

However in 1526 Juan Luis Vives [2], a contemporary of Thomas More, was the first to explicitly endorse an early version of BI in his work “De subventione Pauperam” (lit.: “On the support of the poor"), which was addressed to the mayor and aldermen of Bruges. By contrast with today’s idea of BI, Vives’ idea was based on the potential recipients’ willingness to work. In the centuries that followed after Morus and Vives the idea that the state has a certain responsibility for their citizens’ welfare were considered time and time again.

In 1748 Charles-Louis de Secondat, better known just as Montesquieu [3] anonymously published his work “The Spirit of Laws” (de Secondat, 1748, p. XXIII/29) where he noted that “A man is not poor because he has nothing, but because he does not work”, however, he continues by stating that

The alms given to a naked man in the street do not fulfil the obligations of the state, which owes to every citizen a certain subsistence, a proper nourishment, convenient clothing, and a kind of life not incompatible with health (de Secondat, 1748, p. XXIII/29).

In 1795 the American revolutionary Thomas Paine [4] advocated a citizen's dividend to all US citizens in his book “Agrarian Justice”:

We should create in every nation a national fund to pay to every person, when arrived at the age of 21 years, the sum of 15 pounds sterling, to enable him or her to begin the world. And also, 10 pounds sterling per annum during life to every person over the age of 50 years, to enable them to live in old age without wretchedness, and go decently out of the world. (Paine, 1797)

Shortly after Paine even Napoleon Bonaparte [5] commented on the idea that

[Every] man is entitled by birth right to a share of the Earth's produce sufficient to fill the needs of his existence. (Napoleon I. as cited in Herold, 1955)

In the UK it was Lady Juliet Rhys-Williams who, in 1942, as member of the Beveridge Committee, unsuccessfully proposed a BI as an alternative to the main, insurance-based recommendation of the Beveridge Report (Fitzpatrick, 1999). Milton Friedman [6] (1962) further developed Lady Williams’ idea

to the concept of negative income tax which is since then discussed in the USA as Basic Income Guarantee (BIG).

One of Martin Luther King's [7] less known ideas to eradicate poverty by providing every American a guaranteed, middle-class income was laid out 1967 by him in his final book “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?”.

I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective -- the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income (King, 1967).

Today the idea is discussed all over the world. Politicians from the most different political persuasions support the idea – or strictly show their dissent – and it appears that the general idea of BI is not a question of the political orientation of left or right.

Large networks like the “Basic Income Earth Network” (BIEN) with national affiliate networks in most European countries, as for instance the German “Netzwerk Grundeinkommen” or in Ireland the “Basic Income Ireland Network”, are being established. Currently “The European Citizen's Initiative for an Unconditional Basic Income” collects signatures for a petition addressed to the European Commission. In 2013 in Switzerland the “Eidgenössische Volksinitiative für ein bedingungsloses Grundeinkommen”, in order to decide on the inclusion of an unconditional basic income into the Swiss constitution, collected 126.000 signatures to initiate a referendum which was held on the 5th of June 2016 and rejected by the majority.

[1] Sir Thomas More (07/02/1478-06/07/1535) was an English lawyer, social philosopher, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was a councillor to Henry VIII and Lord High Chancellor of England. In 2000 Pope John Paul II declared him the "heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians”. Although More opposed the Protestant Reformation and in particular the theology of Martin Luther, he opposed as well the King's separation from the Catholic Church and after refusing to acknowledge Henry VIII as Supreme Head of the Church of England and taking the Oath of Supremacy he was convicted of treason and beheaded.

[2] Juan Luis Vives (06/03/1493-06/05/1540) was a Valencian scholar and humanist who spent most of his adult life in the Southern Netherlands. His beliefs on the soul, insight into early medical practice, and perspective on emotions, memory and learning earned him the title of the "father" of modern psychology. Vives was the first to shed light on some key ideas that established how we perceive psychology today.

[3] Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (18/01/1689-10/02/1755) was a French lawyer and political philosopher. He is famous for his articulation of the theory of separation of powers, which is implemented in many constitutions throughout the world.

[4] Thomas Paine (09/02/1737-08/06/1809) was an English-American political activist, philosopher, political theorist, revolutionary and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America.

[5] Napoléon Bonaparte, born Napoleone di Buonaparte (15/02/1769-05/05/1821) was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution. As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of France from 1804 until 1814 and again in 1815.

[6] Milton Friedman (31/07/1912-16/11/2006) was an American economist who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the complexity of stabilization policy. In his 1962 book “Capitalism and Freedom” he advocated policies such as a volunteer military, freely floating exchange rates and a negative income tax.

[7] Martin Luther King, Jr. (15/01/1929-04/04/1968) was an American activist, humanitarian and leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement.