1. History
     Older history (from Paine and Spence to 1900)    1900-1960    1960s and 1970s    2010-  

2. Permanent fund of Alaska
     2010-  

3. Smaller experiments and initiatives
    Hawaii 

4. Political parties and other organisations

5. References

Basic income and negative income tax, which is a related welfare system, has been debated in the United States since the 1960s, and to a smaller extent also before that. During the 1960s and 1970s a number of experiments with negative income tax were conducted in United States and Canada. In the 1970s another and somewhat related welfare system was introduced instead, the Earned Income Tax Credit. The next big development in the history of basic income in the United States came 1982, when The Permanent Fund of Alaska was established. It has delivered some kind of basic income, financed from the states oil and gas revenues, ever since.

History

Older history (from Paine and Spence to 1900)

Arguable the first to propose a system with great similarities to a national basic income in the United States was Thomas Paine, in Agrarian Justice, 1796/1797. His idea was that a few "basic incomes" to young people, in their 20s, financed by tax on heritage, was highly needed and also a matter of justice. Shortly after that, in 1797, Thomas Spence, outlined a complete basic income proposal.^[1]

1900-1960

In the first half of the 20th century various people in the United States advocated some kind of basic income. There were for example the Louisiana governor Huey Long who called it "Share Our Wealth" and also some followers of Henry George.

1960s and 1970s

In the 1960s and the 1970s the debate around, and support for, basic income and the related system negative income tax, rose substantially. This debate and interest was highly linked to general debate on poverty and how to deal with it. In 1968, James Tobin, Paul Samuelson, John Kenneth Galbraith and another 1,200 economists signed a document calling for the US Congress to introduce in that year a system of income guarantees and supplements.^[2] Milton Friedman endorsed the negative income tax in 1962 and again in 1980,^[3] and he connected his support for the negative income tax to support for basic income in an interview with Eduardo Suplicy in 2000.^[4]

Martin Luther King, a famous civil rights activist and politician, also gave his support for the idea in his book Chaos or Community?, published in 1967.^[5][6] In 1969, Richard Nixon proposed a "Family Assistance Program" which resembled guaranteed income, in that benefits did not rapidly taper with additional earnings by the beneficiaries. Nixon's proposal only applied to families, but extended previous welfare by benefiting more than those without a 'father'.^[7] Other advocates from the 1960s and 1970s include Senator George McGovern who called for a 'demogrant' that was similar to a basic income.^[8]

From 1968 to 1982, the US and Canadian governments conducted a total of five negative income tax experiments. They were the first major social science experiments in the world. The first experiment was the New Jersey Income Maintenance Experiment, proposed by MIT Economics graduate student Heather Ross in 1967 in a proposal to the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity.^[9]

The four experiments were in:^[10]

1. The New Jersey Income Maintenance Experiment: Trenton, Passaic, Paterson, and Jersey City, New Jersey with Scranton, Pennsylvania added to increase the number of white families, 1968–1972 (1357 families)^&91;11&93;
2. The Rural Income Maintenance Experiment: Rural areas in Iowa and North Carolina, 1969–1973 (809 families)
3. Gary, Indiana, 1971–1974 (1800 families)
4. Seattle (SIME) and Denver (DIME), 1971–1982 (4800 families)
5. Manitoba, Canada ("Mincome"), 1974-1979

In general they found that workers would decrease labor supply (employment) by two to four weeks per year because of the guarantee of income equal to the poverty threshold.^[12]

2010-

The debate about basic income, according to Guy Standing, has gone in two directions in United States in recent years. On the one hand the introduction of basic income as an alternative to existing social policies, paid from direct taxation, and on the other hand a discussion about capital funds with basic income-style dividends.^[13]

In 2019, Andrew Yang's 2020 presidential campaign is based on Universal Basic Income or Freedom Dividend as it's called.

Permanent fund of Alaska

The Alaska Permanent Fund is often mentioned as one of the few existing basic income systems in the world. The Fund pays a partial basic income to all (permanent) residents of Alaska since 1982. A prominent figure in the history of the fund is Jay Hammond. He was the Republican governor of Alaska in the 1970s and as such he was concerned that the huge wealth generated by oil mining in Prudhoe Bay, the largest oilfield in North America, would only benefit the current population of the state. Therefore, he suggested setting up a fund to ensure that this wealth would be preserved, through investment of part of the revenue from oil.^[14]

2010-

The debate about basic income, according to Guy Standing, has gone in two directions in United States in recent years. On the one hand the introduction of basic income as an alternative to existing social policies, paid from direct taxation, and on the other hand a discussion about capital funds with basic income-style dividends.^[15]

Smaller experiments and initiatives

Hawaii

In July 2017, Hawaii State Rep. Chris Lee published a bill to investigate basic income for his state.^[16]

Political parties and other organisations

The Green Party of the United States in its 2010 platform advocated for a universal basic income to "every adult regardless of health, employment, or marital status, in order to minimize government bureaucracy and intrusiveness into people's lives."^[17]

References

• Solano, California
• Solano Cassamajor
• Solano Castle
• Solano Community College District
• Solano County
• Solano County Council
• Solano County Jane Doe
• Solano (crater)
• Solano Mall
• Solano (surname)
• Solantin
• Solantoin
• Solan Tunnel
• Solantyl
• Solanum abutiloides
• Solanum anguivi
• Solanum anguivi lam fruit
• Solanum arcanum
• Solanum ashbyae
• Solanum bauerianum
• Solanum brevicaule
• Solanum candidum
• Solanum catilliflorum
• Solanum chacoense
• Solanum chilense