Basic income

Thomas Paine called for a BI in 1797 financed by Land Value Taxation

Thomas Paine

If you know something about Basic Income, you may be aware that one of the first proposals for a Basic Income came from Thomas Paine, hero of the American and French revolutions. In 1797, after a stint in a French prison, Paine wrote the pamphlet Agrarian Justice, which sets out an argument for taxing land and distributing the proceeds among the population at large as compensation for landlessness.

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Waiting for a Basic Income... Funded out of Rent

Every citizen has a right to a Basic Income, a right to their share of the surplus wealth produced by their local economy.

But Basic Income plans should be funded out of unearned income, NOT earned income. People with jobs should NOT be taxed to pay for people without jobs.

About 30% of the GDP in every jurisdiction is economic rent, variously called the economic surplus, super profits, royalties, capital gains, unearned income, monopoly profits, or profits without a corresponding cost of production.

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