In these days of downsizing and unemployment, the imminent bankruptcy of Social Security and Medicare, homelessness and violence among urban youth, the time for this idea to become our national policy has come. Few people know that we almost enacted the GAI, called the Family Assistance Plan, in 1969. President Nixon was its strong proponent, it was passed by the House, and blocked by the lack of a few Senate votes. Nixon and the Congress were spurred by the Watts riots of 1965, which struck fear to the hearts of business and government, but in praising the act, the President spoke to the fears of the people who would no longer have the welfare worker breathing down their backs to see if they were cheating on the eligibility requirements. The trouble with all plans for a guaranteed annual income so far floated is that they are minimal, inadequate, and the income is given to no one as a matter of right, only as charity.
Charity destroys the dignity of the receiver while it makes the giver selfrighteous.
He would leave earned income to be received, as now, differently according to skill, ability, and application. But he finds no justification for giving most unearned income to a few who do nothing to earn it. He would distribute unearned income equally to us all, as a matter of right. The consequences of this division and of this right are enormous. Most of our economic problems would be solved immediately by this simple act.