Begin of the 16th century
- Aid for the poor was the privilege of the church in Europe
- Preliminary stages of social benefits
- 1516 Thomas More: „Utopia“
- 1526 Juan Luis Vives: De Subventione Pauperum (On the Assistance to the Poor)
- connected to the willingness to work
- influence on Montesquieu in the 18th century, who was a mastermind of the French revolution
End of the 18th century
- Marquis de Condorcet influenced Thomas Paine
- Francois Huet developed the idea of a «Stakeholder Society»
19th century
- 1836 Charles Fourier, who was called by Karl Marx as „utopian socialist“: „La Fausse Industrie“
- Joseph Charlier developed parallel to Karl Marx his idea of a “State dividend” (“Solution du problème social ou constitution humanitaire”)
- John Stuard Mill continued the ideas of Charlier
20th century
Three periods of the idea of Basic Income
1. Inter-war debates in England
- Bertrand Russel, Nobel laureate, introduced arguments in 1918 for a social model that combines the advantages of socialism and anarchism.
- Dennis Milner published in the same year the pamphlet "Scheme for a State Bonus"
- Clifford H (“Major”) Douglas proposed the introduction of a “social credit”. It failed to establish itself in the United Kingdom but attracted many supporters in Canada
2. 1960x/70x in the USA
- Robert Thobald advocated guaranteed minimum income in various publications
- Milton Friedman, Nobel laureate, proposed in 1962 in his book “Capitalism and Freedom“ a “Negative Income Tax“
- James Tobin analysed in 1967 the “Negative Income Tax“ and supported the idea with additional social welfare
- Martin Luther King and Erich Fromm come out in favour of a Basic Income
- Under the keyword “Mincome”, there were first trials in the USA (1970x) to test the effects of a Basic Income
3. 1970x/80x in North-Western Europe
- At the end of the 1970x first discussions about BI in Denmark, the Netherlands, Britain, Germany and France
- 1984 founding of BIEN (Basic Income European Network)
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