This was tried in India. It is called MNREGA. From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Rural_Employment_Guarantee_Act,_2005 https://en.wikipedia.

This was tried in India. It is called MNREGA. From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Rural_Employment_Guarantee_Act,_2005 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Rural_Employment_Guar... National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (or, NREGA No 42) was later renamed as the "Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act" (or, MGNREGA), is an Indian labour law and social security measure that aims to guarantee the 'right to work'. It aims to enhance livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.[1][2] Starting from 200 districts on 2 February 2006, the NREGA covered all the districts of India from 1 April 2008.[3] The statute is hailed by the government as "the largest and most ambitious social security and public works programme in the world".[4] In its World Development Report 2014, the World Bank termed it a "stellar example of rural development".[5]