At least one prominent American, Thomas Paine (of the American revolution) advocated a guaranteed minimum income for everyone in his pamphlet Agrarian Justice,

At least one prominent American, Thomas Paine (of the American revolution) advocated a guaranteed minimum income for everyone in his pamphlet Agrarian Justice, which was a real fascinating read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrarian_Justice http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrarian_Justice The US Social Security administration keeps a full text of the pamphlet online: http://www.ssa.gov/history/paine4.html http://www.ssa.gov/history/paine4.html