Joseph Charlier

Who was Joseph Charlier?

Joseph Charlier was a Belgian self-described jurist, writer, accountant, and merchant. He was one of the earliest proponents of a citizen's income or guaranteed minimum income, preceding even the "state bonus" scheme published by British Dennis Milner in 1920.

Charlier was influenced by Charles Fourier. According to John Stuart Mill, 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 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.