The universal basic income is an idea whose time has come—again. The first time, in 1970, the House of Representatives passed a measure to provide a guaranteed annual income to families of $500 per parent and $300 per child ($3,106 and $1,864, respectively, in today’s dollars). The basic income movement back then was bipartisan: a majority of House Democrats and a majority of House Republicans supported the bill, as did President Nixon. But Nixon was careful to say that his basic income plan would not end poverty once and for all. As Nixon told the country in a televised address several months before the basic income measure passed the House:

Abolishing poverty, putting an end to dependency—like reaching the moon a generation ago—may seem to be impossible. But in the spirit of Apollo, we can lift our sights and marshal our best efforts. We can resolve to make this the year not that we reached the goal, but that we turned the corner.

Nixon’s plan died in the Senate at the hands of Louisiana Democrat and Finance Committee chairman Russell Long, who was worried that a minimum income would encourage “indolence.”

More than four-and-a-half decades later, proposals for a basic income are percolating once again—and once again, support comes from both ends of the ideological spectrum.

Read more at The New Rambler Review