Joseph Charlier (20 June 1816 – 6 December 1896) was a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct language ...

self-described

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

, writer, accountant, and merchant. He was one of the earliest proponents of a

citizen's income Citizen's dividend is a proposed policy based upon the Georgist principle that the natural world is the common property of all people. It is proposed that all citizens receive regular payments (dividends) from revenue raised by leasing or tax ...

guaranteed minimum income Guaranteed minimum income (GMI), also called minimum income (or mincome for short), is a social-welfare spending, welfare system that guarantees all citizens or families an income sufficient to live on, provided that certain eligibility conditions ...

, preceding even the "state bonus" scheme published by British

Dennis Milner Dennis or Denis is a first or last name from the Greco-Roman name Dionysius, via one of the Christian saints named Dionysius. The name came from Dionysus, the Greek god of ecstatic states, particularly those produced by wine, which is sometime ...

(1892–1956) in 1920. Charlier was influenced by

Charles Fourier François Marie Charles Fourier (; ; 7 April 1772 – 10 October 1837) was a French philosopher, an influential early socialist thinker, and one of the founders of utopian socialism. Some of his views, held to be radical in his lifetime, have be ...

. According to

John Stuart Mill John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 7 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist, politician and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of liberalism and social liberalism, he contributed widely to s ...

, Fourierism required that "in the distribution, a certain minimum is first assigned for the subsistence of every member of the community, whether capable or not of labour." Fourier and his foremost disciple

Victor Prosper Considérant Victor Prosper Considerant (12 October 1808 – 27 December 1893) was a French utopian socialist philosopher and economist who was a disciple of Charles Fourier. Biography Considerant was born in Salins-les-Bains, Jura and studied at the Éc ...

criticized civilization for failing to provide a minimum to the poor, but feared widespread idleness and a collapsing civilization if workers previously depending on "repugnant" labor for income had a choice. Considérant, in some of his writings, suggested that society guarantee a right to work in order to compensate them for denying equal access to natural resources. ("La condition sine quâ non-pour la Légitimité de la Propriété est donc que la Société reconnaisse au Prolétaire le droit au travail et qu’elle lui assure au moins autant de moyens de subsistance, pour un exercice d’activité donné, que cet exercice eût pu lui en procurer dans l’État primitif.") Charlier agreed with Fourierism that the central problem was the improvement of the condition of the disinherited classes ("amélioration du sort des classes déshéritées"). He rejected "the right to assistance", a solution addressing effects rather than the cause, and the "right to work/organization of labor" which he expected to result in an extension of state control. Instead, Charlier proposed a scheme with a basic income paid unconditionally to every member of society, regardless of need or ability to work. In 1896 at age 80, Charlier died at Brussels where he was born.

Writings by Charlier (selection)

* ''Solution du problème social ou constitution humanitaire, basée sur la loi naturelle, et précédée de l’exposé de motifs'' (1848) * ''Catéchisme populaire, philosophique, politique et social'' (1871) * ''La question sociale résolue précédée du testament philosophique d’un penseur'' (1894) * ''L’anarchie désarmée par l’équité: Corollaire à la question sociale résolue'' (1894)

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Charlier, Joseph Belgian writers in French 1816 births 1896 deaths Belgian political philosophers Belgian accountants