List of advocates of basic income
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The following is a list of notable individuals who have publicy expressed support for or are working for the introduction of a
universal basic income Universal basic income (UBI) is a social welfare proposal in which all citizens of a given population regularly receive an unconditional transfer payment, that is, without a means test or need to work. It would be received independently of ...
(UBI).


Europe

*
Dieter Althaus Dieter Althaus (born 29 June 1958 in Heiligenstadt/Eichsfeld) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He served as the 3rd Minister President of Thuringia from 2003 to 2009. In 2003/04 he was the 58th President of the Bu ...
, German politician *
Tim Berners-Lee Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee (born 8 June 1955), also known as TimBL, is an English computer scientist best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web. He is a Professorial Fellow of Computer Science at the University of Oxford and a profes ...
,
World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet. Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web ...
inventor * Julen Bollain, Spanish economist, politician and basic income researcher *
Annalena Baerbock Annalena Charlotte Alma Baerbock (; born 15 December 1980) is a German politician of the Alliance 90/The Greens party serving as Germany's minister for foreign affairs since 2021. From 2018 to January 2022, Baerbock served as co-leader of Allia ...
, German politician *
Robert Habeck Robert Habeck (; born 2 September 1969) is a German politician and writer who has been serving as Vice Chancellor of Germany, Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action in ...
, German politician *
Winfried Kretschmann Winfried Kretschmann (born 17 May 1948) is a German politician serving as Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg since 2011. A member of the Alliance '90/Greens, he was President of the Bundesrat and ''ex officio'' deputy to the President of ...
, German politician *
Frank Thelen Frank Thelen (born 10 October 1975) is a German businessman, investor and author based in Bonn. Career Thelen was a co-founder of companies such as ip.labs and doo. As of 2014, he is the CEO of venture capital firm e42, now Freigeist Capital, ...
, German entrepreneur and author *
Richard David Precht Richard David Precht (; born 8 December 1964) is a German philosopher and author of successful popular science books about philosophical issues. He hosts the TV show " Precht" on ZDF. He is an honorary professor of philosophy at the Leuphana Un ...
, German philosopher and author *
Harald Welzer Harald Welzer (born 27 July 1958, Wedemark) is a German social psychologist. He studied sociology, psychology and literature at the University of Hannover. He has been a professor of transformation design at the University of Flensburg since 20 ...
, German social psychologist * Maja Göpel, German political economist and sustainability scientist *
Gerald Hüther Gerald Hüther (born 15 February 1951 in Emleben) is a German neurobiologist and author of popular science books and other writings. He often gives talks to share his findings from neurobiology at conferences like TED, but he said that he won ...
, German neurobiologist and author * Ranga Yogeshwar, Luxembourgish author and science journalist *
Alan Watts Alan Wilson Watts (6 January 1915 – 16 November 1973) was an English writer, speaker and self-styled "philosophical entertainer", known for interpreting and popularising Japanese, Chinese and Indian traditions of Buddhist, Taoist, and Hindu ...
, British writer * Louise Haagh, political theorist, form chair of the
Basic Income Earth Network BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College ...
*
Rutger Bregman Rutger C. Bregman (born 26 April 1988) is a Dutch historian and author. He has published four books on history, philosophy, and economics, including '' Utopia for Realists: How We Can Build the Ideal World'', which has been translated into thirt ...
, Dutch author *
Angus Deaton Sir Angus Stewart Deaton (born 19 October 1945) is a British economist and academic. Deaton is currently a Senior Scholar and the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of Economics and International Affairs Emeritus at the Princeton School of Public ...
, 2015 Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics *
André Gorz André Gorz ( né Gerhart Hirsch ; 9 February 1923 – 22 September 2007), more commonly known by his pen names Gérard Horst and Michel Bosquet , was an Austrian and French social philosopher and journalist and critic of work. He co-founde ...
, Austrian-French social philosopher and journalist * Benoit Hamon, candidate for President of France in 2017 *
Timotheus Höttges Timotheus Höttges (born 18 September 1962) is a German businessman who has been serving as chief executive officer of Deutsche Telekom AG, the majority shareholder of T-Mobile US, since 2014. Early life He was born in Solingen in North Rhine-We ...
, German manager *
Katja Kipping Katja Kipping (born 18 January 1978) is a German politician of The Left party who is serving as Senator for Integration, Labour and Social Affairs in the Berlin state government since December 2021. She was previously a member of the Bundestag ...
, The Left, Germany *
Caroline Lucas Caroline Patricia Lucas (born 9 December 1960) is a British politician who has twice led the Green Party of England and Wales and has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brighton Pavilion since the 2010 general election. She was re-elect ...
, British politician *
John McDonnell John Martin McDonnell (born 8 September 1951) is a British politician who served as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2015 to 2020. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Hayes and Harlington since 1997. ...
, British politician *
Antonio Negri Antonio "Toni" Negri (born 1 August 1933) is an Italian Spinozistic-Marxist sociologist and political philosopher, best known for his co-authorship of ''Empire'' and secondarily for his work on Spinoza. Born in Padua, he became a political p ...
, Italian Spinozistic-Marxist sociologist and political philosopher *
Philippe Van Parijs Philippe Van Parijs (; born 1951) is a Belgian political philosopher and political economist, best known as a proponent and main defender of the concept of an unconditional basic income and for the first systematic treatment of linguistic jus ...
, Belgian philosopher *
Carole Pateman Carole Pateman (born 11 December 1940) is a feminist and political theorist. She is known as a critic of liberal democracy and has been a member of the British Academy since 2007. Biography Pateman was born in Maresfield, Sussex, England. Edu ...
, feminist and political theorist *
Thomas Piketty Thomas Piketty (; born 7 May 1971) is a French economist who is Professor of Economics at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, Associate Chair at the Paris School of Economics and Centennial Professor of Economics in the In ...
, economist * Christopher A. Pissarides, 2010 Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics *
Jonathan Reynolds Jonathan Neil Reynolds (born 28 August 1980) is a British politician. He has served as Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Industrial Strategy since 2021. A member of the Labour and Co-operative parties, he has been Member of Parliame ...
, British politician *
Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
, British politician *
Molly Scott Cato Sarah Margaret "Molly" Scott Cato (born 21 May 1963) is a British Green politician, economist and activist. She served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South West England from 2014 to 2020. From 2012, until her election as an M ...
, British politician, academic, environmental and community activist, and green economist *
Osmo Soininvaara Osmo Heikki Kristian Soininvaara (born 2 September 1951 in Helsinki) is a Finnish politician and writer. He served as Minister of Social Services in Paavo Lipponen's second cabinet between 14 April 2000 and 19 April 2002. He was the leader of the ...
, Finnish politician * Guy Standing, British economist *
Aubrey de Grey Aubrey David Nicholas Jasper de Grey (; born 20 April 1963) is an English author and biomedical gerontologist. He is the author of ''The Mitochondrial Free Radical Theory of Aging'' (1999) and co-author of ''Ending Aging'' (2007). He is known ...
, English author and biogerontologist *
Yanis Varoufakis Ioannis "Yanis" Varoufakis ( el, Ιωάννης Γεωργίου "Γιάνης" Βαρουφάκης, Ioánnis Georgíou "Giánis" Varoufákis, ; born 24 March 1961) is a Greek economist and politician. A former academic, he served as the Gree ...
, former finance minister of Greece * Björn Wahlroos, Finnish billionaire * Susanne Wiest, German activist *
Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...
, pope of the Catholic Church *
Harald Lesch Harald Lesch (born 28 July 1960) is a German physicist, astronomer, natural philosopher, author, television presenter, professor of physics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) and professor of natural philosophy at the Munich Un ...
, German astrophysicist and author * Thomas Straubhaar, Swiss economist * Martin Wehrle, German journalist and author * Michael Bohmeyer, German entrepreneur, author and activist * Wolfgang Strengmann-Kuhn, German politician * Joe Kaeser, German manager * Giuseppe Conte, Italian jurist, politician and leader of the Five Star Movement. * Jan Pieter Kuiper, Dutch professor of social medicine *
Claus Offe Claus Offe (born 16 March 1940 in Berlin) is a political sociologist of Marxist orientation. He received his PhD from the University of Frankfurt and his Habilitation at the University of Konstanz. In Germany, he has held chairs for Political Sci ...
, German sociologist * David Casassas, Spanish sociologist *
Marcel Fratzscher Marcel Fratzscher (born January 25, 1971) is a German economist and professor at Humboldt-University of Berlin. Since February 2013 he has been president of the Berlin-based economic research institute DIW Berlin. He was previously head of Inter ...
, German economist * Clive Lewis, British politician * Oswald Sigg, Swiss journalist *
Georges-Louis Bouchez Georges-Louis Bouchez (GLB), (born March 23, 1986) is a Belgians, Belgian politician and lawyer. Since 2019 he has served as a Senate (Belgium), Senator and leader of Mouvement Réformateur, Mouvement réformateur. Early life Bouchez was born i ...
, Belgian politician and lawyer


United States and Canada

* Aisha Nyandoro, CEO of Springboard to Opportunities, founder of Magnolia Mother's Trust * Karl Widerquist, political theorist and economist * Peter Barnes, entrepreneur and environmentalist * Keith Ellison,
Attorney General of Minnesota The attorney general of Minnesota is a constitutional officer in the executive branch of the U.S. State of Minnesota. Thirty individuals have held the office of Attorney General since statehood. The incumbent is Keith Ellison, a DFLer. Election ...
, former U.S. Congressman and former DNC Deputy Chair *
James Baker James Addison Baker III (born April 28, 1930) is an American attorney, diplomat and statesman. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 10th White House Chief of Staff and 67th United States Secretary of the Treasury under President ...
, former U.S. Treasury Secretary * Peter Diamond, 2010 Economics Nobel Prize winner *
Jack Dorsey Jack Patrick Dorsey (born November 19, 1976) is an American Internet entrepreneur and programmer who is a co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, Inc., as well as a co-founder and the CEO and chairperson of Block, Inc., the developer of the Squa ...
, founder of
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
* Martin Feldstein, former Chair of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers * Henry Paulson, former U.S. Treasury Secretary *
Robert Reich Robert Bernard Reich (; born June 24, 1946) is an American professor, author, lawyer, and political commentator. He worked in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, and served as Secretary of Labor from 1993 to 1997 in ...
, former U.S. Secretary of Labor *
Greg Mankiw Nicholas Gregory Mankiw (; born February 3, 1958) is an American macroeconomist who is currently the Robert M. Beren Professor of Economics at Harvard University. Mankiw is best known in academia for his work on New Keynesian economics. Mankiw ...
, former Chair of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers *
George P. Shultz George Pratt Shultz (; December 13, 1920February 6, 2021) was an American economist, businessman, diplomat and statesman. He served in various positions under two different Republican presidents and is one of the only two persons to have held fou ...
, former U.S. Treasury Secretary *
Curtis Sliwa Curtis Sliwa (; born March 26, 1954) is an American activist, radio talk show host and founder and chief executive officer of the Guardian Angels, a nonprofit organization for unarmed crime prevention. Sliwa was the Republican nominee for the ...
, activist, radio talk show host and Republican nominee for the
2021 New York City mayoral election The 2021 New York City mayoral election was held on November 2, 2021. Incumbent Mayor Bill de Blasio was term-limited and ineligible to run for re-election. On June 22, 2021, the primary elections for the Democratic and Republican primaries ...
*
Ted Halstead Ted Halstead (July 25, 1968 – September 2, 2020) was an American author, policy entrepreneur, and public speaker who has founded four non-profit think tanks and advocacy organizations: the Climate Leadership Council, Americans for Carbon ...
,
policy entrepreneur Policy entrepreneur or entrepreneurs are "individuals who exploit opportunities to influence policy outcomes so as to promote their own goals, without having the resources necessary to achieve this alone. They are not satisfied with merely promoting ...
* Pierre Omidyar, founder of
eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became ...
* Erik Olin Wright, Marxist sociologist * Andrew Ng, computer scientist, statistician, and artificial intelligence researcher *
Tim Draper Timothy Cook Draper (born June 11, 1958) is an American venture capital investor, and founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ),
, venture capitalist *
Sam Altman Samuel H. Altman ( ; born April 22, 1985) is an American entrepreneur, investor, programmer, and blogger. He is the CEO of OpenAI and the former president of Y Combinator. Early life and education Altman grew up in St. Louis, Missouri; his mothe ...
,
Y Combinator Y Combinator (YC) is an American technology startup accelerator launched in March 2005. It has been used to launch more than 3,000 companies, including Airbnb, Coinbase, Cruise, DoorDash, Dropbox, Instacart, Quora, PagerDuty, Reddit, St ...
president *
Chris Hughes Chris Hughes (born November 26, 1983) is an American entrepreneur and author who co-founded and served as spokesman for the online social directory and networking site Facebook until 2007. He was the publisher and editor-in-chief of ''The New R ...
, co-founder of Meta Platforms *
Dan Savage Daniel Keenan Savage (born October 7, 1964) is an American author, media pundit, journalist, and LGBT community activist. He writes ''Savage Love'', an internationally syndicated relationship and sex advice column. In 2010, Savage and his husba ...
, LGBT activist * Charles Murray, libertarian political scientist * Bill Gross, financial manager * Robin Chase, co-founder of Zipcar * Andy Stern, former
Service Employees International Union Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is a labor union representing almost 1.9 million workers in over 100 occupations in the United States and Canada. SEIU is focused on organizing workers in three sectors: healthcare (over half of members ...
president *
Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The ...
, business magnate * Ryan Holmes,
Hootsuite Hootsuite is a social media management platform, created by Ryan Holmes in 2008. The system's user interface takes the form of a dashboard, and supports social network integrations for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube an ...
CEO *
Joe Rogan Joseph James Rogan (born August 11, 1967) is an American UFC color commentator, podcaster, comedian, actor, and former television presenter. He hosts ''The Joe Rogan Experience'', a podcast in which he discusses current events, comedy, polit ...
, American podcast host * Paul Vallée, Pythian Group CEO *
Naheed Nenshi Naheed Kurban Nenshi (born February 2, 1972) is a Canadian politician who was the 36th mayor of Calgary, Alberta. He was elected in the 2010 municipal election with 39% of the vote, and is the first Muslim mayor of a large North American city. ...
,
Mayor of Calgary This is a list of mayors of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. List of Mayors of Calgary See also *List of Calgary municipal elections *Calgary City Council Notes References SourcesBiographies of Calgary's mayors from the City of Calgary web pa ...
* Don Iveson, Mayor of Edmonton * S. Robson Walton, former
Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...
Chairman *
Andrew Yang Andrew Yang (born January 13, 1975) is an American businessman, attorney, lobbyist, and politician. Yang was a candidate in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries and the 2021 New York City Democratic mayoral primary. He is the co-c ...
, founder of
Venture for America Venture For America (VFA) is an American nonprofit organization and fellowship headquartered in New York City. Founded by Andrew Yang in 2011, its mission is "to create economic opportunity in American cities" by training recent graduates and youn ...
, and a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate * Tulsi Gabbard, former U.S. Representative for Hawaii's 2nd congressional district, and a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate * Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Meta Platforms *
Jeff Bezos Jeffrey Preston Bezos ( ;; and Robinson (2010), p. 7. ''né'' Jorgensen; born January 12, 1964) is an American entrepreneur, media proprietor, investor, and commercial astronaut. He is the founder, executive chairman, and former preside ...
, founder of
Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...
*
Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...
, founder of
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...
However, note that Bill Gates said that it is too early to implement an universal basic income in 2017. He said that "even the US isn't rich enough etto allow people not to work", but "over time countries will be ... Overall, there is " ..still ..a lot of work that should be done ... Source: *
Tim Cook Timothy Donald Cook (born November 1, 1960) is an American business executive who has been the chief executive officer of Apple Inc. since 2011. Cook previously served as the company's chief operating officer under its co-founder Steve Jobs ...
, CEO of
Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...
*
Larry Page Lawrence Edward Page (born March 26, 1973) is an American business magnate, computer scientist and internet entrepreneur. He is best known for co-founding Google with Sergey Brin. Page was the chief executive officer of Google from 1997 unti ...
, co-founder of
Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
*
Ray Kurzweil Raymond Kurzweil ( ; born February 12, 1948) is an American computer scientist, author, inventor, and futurist. He is involved in fields such as optical character recognition (OCR), text-to-speech synthesis, speech recognition technology, and e ...
, American inventor and futurist *
Neil deGrasse Tyson Neil deGrasse Tyson ( or ; born October 5, 1958) is an American astrophysicist, author, and science communicator. Tyson studied at Harvard University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Columbia University. From 1991 to 1994, he was a p ...
, American astrophysicist *
Penn Jillette Penn Fraser Jillette (born March 5, 1955) is an American magician, actor, musician, inventor, television presenter, and author, best known for his work with fellow magician Teller as half of the team Penn & Teller. The duo has been featured ...
, American magician, actor, television presenter, and author *
Jeremy Rifkin Jeremy Rifkin (born January 26, 1945) is an American economic and social theorist, writer, public speaker, political advisor, and activist. Rifkin is the author of 23 books about the impact of scientific and technological changes on the economy, ...
, American economic and social theorist *
Erik Brynjolfsson Erik Brynjolfsson (born 1962) is an American academic, author and inventor. He is the Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Professor and a Senior Fellow at Stanford University where he directs thDigital Economy Labat the Stanford Institute for Human-Cen ...
, American author and inventor * Andrew McAfee, American research scientist *
Timothy Leary Timothy Francis Leary (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996) was an American psychologist and author known for his strong advocacy of psychedelic drugs. Evaluations of Leary are polarized, ranging from bold oracle to publicity hound. He was "a her ...
, candidate for governor of California in 1969 * Eugene McCarthy, candidate for president of the United States in 1968 * Peter Diamandis, Greek-American entrepreneur * Albert Wenger, German-American businessman * Guy Caron, Canadian politician *
Peter Vallentyne Peter Vallentyne (; born March 25, 1952, in New Haven, Connecticut) is Florence G. Kline Professor of Philosophy at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. He holds dual citizenship in the United States and Canada. Biography Vallenty ...
, American academic * Hillel Steiner, Canadian political philosopher *
Ben Goertzel Ben Goertzel is a cognitive scientist, artificial intelligence researcher, CEO and founder of SingularityNET, leader of the OpenCog Foundation, and the AGI Society, and chair of Humanity+. He helped popularize the term 'artificial general inte ...
, American AI researcher *
Michael Tubbs Michael Derrick Tubbs (born August 2, 1990) is an American politician who is currently serving as a special adviser for economic mobility and opportunity for Governor Gavin Newsom. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 79 ...
, 79th Mayor of Stockton, California, later special adviser for economic mobility and opportunity for Governor
Gavin Newsom Gavin Christopher Newsom (born October 10, 1967) is an American politician and businessman who has been the 40th governor of California since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 49th lieutenant governor of California f ...
*
Aja Brown Aja Lena Brown ( Clinkscale; born April 17, 1982) is an American politician who is the former mayor of Compton, California. She won the election, defeating both incumbent mayor Eric J. Perrodin and former mayor Omar Bradley. Early life Brown ...
, 18th Mayor of Compton, California, initiator of the Compton Pledge * Edward Snowden, American whistleblower


Asia, Africa, Latin America, Oceania

* Eduardo Suplicy, Brazil *
Kim Kataguiri Kim Patroca Kataguiri (born 28 January 1996) is a Brazilian politician, activist, lecturer, and one of the founders and leaders of the Free Brazil Movement, a right-wing group. In October 2018 , he was elected a congressman for the 20192022 te ...
, Brazilian Activist and Politician *
Varun Gandhi Varun Gandhi (born 13 March 1980) is an Indian author, politician, and a third-term member of Parliament for Lok Sabha from the Pilibhit constituency. He is also member of the Bharatiya Janata Party and was inducted into Rajnath Singh's team ...
, Indian Member of Parliament * Arvind Subramanian, present economic adviser in India *
Archbishop Desmond Tutu Desmond Mpilo Tutu (7 October 193126 December 2021) was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbisho ...
, 1984 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, South Africa * Gareth Morgan, economist, New Zealand * Andrew Little, minister of Justice, New Zealand *
Johann Rupert Johann Peter Rupert (born 1 June 1950) is a South African billionaire businessman, who is the eldest son of business tycoon Anton Rupert and his wife Huberte. He is the chairman of the Swiss-based luxury-goods company Richemont and the South Af ...
, South-African billionaire businessman * Lee Jae-myung, South Korean politician and leader of the
Democratic Party of Korea The Democratic Party of Korea (DPK; ), formerly known as the New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD), is a liberal political party in South Korea. Controlling the unicameral National Assembly as of 2022, the DPK is regarded as one of two m ...
* Yong Hye-in, South Korean politician of the Basic Income Party


Historical advocates


Eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

*
Thomas Spence Thomas Spence ( 17508 September 1814) was an English RadicalProperty in Land Every One's Rightin 1775. It was re-issued as ''The Real Rights of Man'' in later editions. It was also reissued by, amongst others, Henry Hyndman under the title o ...
, an eighteenth century English radical, was apparently the first to lay out in full what is now called a universal basic income. *
Thomas Paine Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...
, a philosopher and one of the
Founding Fathers of the United States The Founding Fathers of the United States, known simply as the Founding Fathers or Founders, were a group of late-18th-century American Revolution, American revolutionary leaders who United Colonies, united the Thirteen Colonies, oversaw the Am ...
, advocated a capital grant and an unconditional citizens pension in his 1797 pamphlet '' Agrarian Justice''. * American economist
Henry George Henry George (September 2, 1839 – October 29, 1897) was an American political economist and journalist. His writing was immensely popular in 19th-century America and sparked several reform movements of the Progressive Era. He inspired the eco ...
advocated for a citizen's dividend paid for by a
land value tax A land value tax (LVT) is a levy on the value of land (economics), land without regard to buildings, personal property and other land improvement, improvements. It is also known as a location value tax, a point valuation tax, a site valuation ta ...
in an April 1885 speech at a
Knights of Labor Knights of Labor (K of L), officially Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor, was an American labor federation active in the late 19th century, especially the 1880s. It operated in the United States as well in Canada, and had chapters also ...
local Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States * Local government, a form of public administration, usually the lowest tier of administrat ...
in Burlington, Iowa titled "The Crime of Poverty" and later in an interview with former U.S. House Representative
David Dudley Field II David Dudley Field II (February 13, 1805April 13, 1894) was an American lawyer and law reformer who made major contributions to the development of American civil procedure. His greatest accomplishment was engineering the move away from common ...
from New York's 7th congressional district published in the July 1885 edition of the ''
North American Review The ''North American Review'' (NAR) was the first literary magazine in the United States. It was founded in Boston in 1815 by journalist Nathan Hale and others. It was published continuously until 1940, after which it was inactive until revived at ...
''. *
William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...
, British socialist activist


Twentieth century

* Buckminster Fuller, architect *
Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...
, philosopher *
Huey Long Huey Pierce Long Jr. (August 30, 1893September 10, 1935), nicknamed "the Kingfish", was an American politician who served as the 40th governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and as a United States senator from 1932 until his assassination ...
, governor and US Senator from Louisiana, in his Share Our Wealth plan * American economists
James Tobin James Tobin (March 5, 1918 – March 11, 2002) was an American economist who served on the Council of Economic Advisers and consulted with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and taught at Harvard and Yale Universities. He d ...
,
Paul Samuelson Paul Anthony Samuelson (May 15, 1915 – December 13, 2009) was an American economist who was the first American to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. When awarding the prize in 1970, the Swedish Royal Academies stated that he " ...
, and
John Kenneth Galbraith John Kenneth Galbraith (October 15, 1908 – April 29, 2006), also known as Ken Galbraith, was a Canadian-American economist, diplomat, public official, and intellectual. His books on economic topics were bestsellers from the 1950s through t ...
signed a document with 1,200 other economists in 1968 calling for the 90th U.S. Congress to introduce in that year a system of income guarantees and supplements. * American economist
Milton Friedman Milton Friedman (; July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist and statistician who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the ...
advocated a basic income in the form of a
negative income tax In economics, a negative income tax (NIT) is a system which reverses the direction in which tax is paid for incomes below a certain level; in other words, earners above that level pay money to the state while earners below it receive money, as ...
in his 1962 book ''
Capitalism and Freedom ''Capitalism and Freedom'' is a book by Milton Friedman originally published in 1962 by the University of Chicago Press which discusses the role of economic capitalism in liberal society. It has sold more than half a million copies since 1962 and ...
'', and again in his 1980 book '' Free to Choose''. * Austrian economist
Friedrich Hayek Friedrich August von Hayek ( , ; 8 May 189923 March 1992), often referred to by his initials F. A. Hayek, was an Austrian–British economist, legal theorist and philosopher who is best known for his defense of classical liberalism. Haye ...
advocated a guaranteed minimum income in his 1944 book '' The Road to Serfdom'', and reiterated his support in his 1973 book ''
Law, Legislation and Liberty ''Law, Legislation and Liberty'' is a work in three volumes by Nobel laureate economist and political philosopher Friedrich Hayek. In it, Hayek further develops the philosophical principles he discussed earlier in ''The Road to Serfdom'', ''The ...
''. *
Tony Atkinson Sir Anthony Barnes Atkinson (4 September 1944 – 1 January 2017) was a British economist, Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics, and senior research fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford. A student of James Meade, Atkinson ...
- British economist, Centennial Professor at the
London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...
, and senior research fellow of
Nuffield College, Oxford Nuffield College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is a graduate college and specialises in the social sciences, particularly economics, politics and sociology. Nuffield is one of Oxford's newer c ...
. * British economist
James Meade James Edward Meade, (23 June 1907 – 22 December 1995) was a British economist and winner of the 1977 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences jointly with the Swedish economist Bertil Ohlin for their "pathbreaking contribution to the ...
* C. H. Douglas - British engineer and pioneer of the
social credit Social credit is a distributive philosophy of political economy developed by C. H. Douglas. Douglas attributed economic downturns to discrepancies between the cost of goods and the compensation of the workers who made them. To combat what he ...
economic reform movement. * Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. endorsed it under the name of "the guaranteed income" in his 1967 book '' Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?'' shortly before his assassination. * French politician Lionel Stoléru argued for UBI in 1974, remarking that it would provide “a means of suppressing and simplifying the entire current series of social programmes”. * U.S. Senator George McGovern from
South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large porti ...
sponsored a bill proposed by the National Welfare Rights Organization to enact a $6,500 guaranteed minimum income, and in his 1972 presidential campaign, proposed replacing the personal income tax exemption with a $1,000 tax credit as a minimum-income floor for every citizen. *
Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...
, English writer


Twenty-first century

* Stephen Hawking, English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author * Ailsa McKay, Scottish economist * Götz Werner, founder, co-owner, and member of the advisory board of dm-drogerie markt


Notes


References

{{Basic income Universal basic income