[simonsarris]

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

The US Social Security administration keeps a full text of the pamphlet online:

http://www.ssa.gov/history/paine4.html

[msrpotus]

Was a common idea back in the 1970's; might have even happened if not for Watergate, stagflation and then Reagan.