Not everyone knows that Dr. King’s last book was largely an argument for his idea for a Guaranteed Minimum Income, or an assurance that citizens who met certain expectations (such as a willingness to volunteer) would have income sufficient to live on. Prior to Dr. King, Thomas Paine had proposed a similar idea called the “Citizen’s Dividend,” which was about a citizen’s right to some portion of profits made from natural resources. Both of these models differ a bit in their details: some are payments simply for being a citizen, whereas others come attached to some expectation of service. In a sense, Social Security was something of a precursor. The system began functioning in 1935, after being drafted during FDR’s first term as president. It took the Depression to get us there, but perhaps historians will look back on our present day inequality (and the present day President) and see little difference between the two epochs. 162