Thomas Paine
Revolutionary pamphleteer (1737–1809) whose Agrarian Justice (1797) is the founding document of the citizen's-dividend idea: land in its natural state is 'the common property of the human race,' so landowners owe a ground-rent funding universal capital grants and old-age pensions.
Overview
Thomas Paine (1737–1809), the revolutionary pamphleteer of Common Sense and Rights of Man, wrote the founding document of the citizen's dividend tradition: Agrarian Justice (1797). Its argument anticipates George by eight decades: the earth in its natural state is "the common property of the human race"; cultivation justifies property in the improvement only, so every landowner owes the community a ground-rent — which Paine would collect through inheritance taxation to fund a capital grant to every citizen at 21 and a pension from 50, as a matter of right, not charity.[1] The citizens-dividend narrative deploys this lineage; Paine differs from George in instrument (an estates charge, not an annual land tax) but not in principle — compensation for exclusion from the common inheritance (land as commons).
See Also
- Citizen's Dividend · Narrative: A Dividend from Common Wealth
- Land as Commons · John Locke — the property theory Paine radicalized
- Henry George
Sources
- Thomas Paine, Agrarian Justice (1797) — used for the common-property claim, the ground-rent argument, and the grant/pension design (A-claims; quotes ≤50 words). Full text (Constitution Society) [VERIFY: stable canonical URL — the citizens-dividend narrative's earlier Paine link also awaits confirmation; resolve both to the same edition.]