Reply #9: This idea was even favored by Barry Goldwater's adviser!

[DailyGrind51]

"To many Americans, the idea of a guaranteed income smacks suspiciously of a dole to people who refuse to get a job. Others argue that this would not be the case with a guaranteed-income scheme called the "negative income tax." Intended to preserve at least some incentive to work, the proposal has at tracted remarkably disparate support —ranging from University of Chicago Economist Milton Friedman, a 1964 adviser to Barry Goldwater, to Yale's James Tobin, a former economic adviser to President Kennedy. Last week the idea got a big boost from inside the business community when Ford Motor Co. President Arjay Miller endorsed it as a key step toward "the elimination of poverty."

Basic Allowance. Speaking at a National Industrial Conference Board meeting in Manhattan, Miller assailed the "unsatisfactory progress" of the nation's existing welfare system by pointing out that there are some 30 million low-income Americans, of whom fewer than 8,000,000 receive public assistance. Present programs, said Miller, "are failing to reach many of those who need help most. Some of the poor now receive help from two or more programs, while others in desperate need receive nothing at all."

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,844271,00.html