Been researching Tom Paine a little bit, and came across a text he wrote in 1795 called Agrarian Justice:

This work was based on the contention that in the state of nature, “the earth, in its natural uncultivated state… was the common property of the human race.” Yet to better cultivate the land, private ownership was established. Thus Paine views private property as necessary, but that the basic needs of all humanity must be somehow provided for by those with property. This is in some sense is their “payment” to non-property holders for the right to hold private property.

Apparently this was a precursor to the idea of Guaranteed Minimum Income or Basic Income Guarantee:

“The system would be a government administered one that would allot every citizen a sum of money large enough to live on. A common amount proposed is 20% of per capita GDP. The wealthiest as well as the poorest citizens would receive this. Salaries from employment would be a supplement to this government income.”

Apparently Portugal is closest to having this system actually implemented on a national scale, followed by its colonial cousin, Brazil. This is also fairly similar to some of the ideas I have been exploring with regards to individuals being paid licensing fees by governments and corporations in exchange for surveillance and data mining. I’ve often thought about how similar my receiving checks in the mail is to people who receive welfare or unemployment. The only difference really is who gives me the money: private corporations instead of the government. That, of course, and that I add value into the system by producing content and harnessing audiences for advertisers to target.

I also vaguely remember those Technocracy people talking about something like this as well, but their language and logic is so convoluted that I couldn’t easily summarize the connection…