Like too many baby boomers, I probably spend too much time on Facebook. The other day, a friend posted a short video from a Lutheran pastor in the United States with this simple note: “This makes a lot of sense.”

The concept of a guaranteed basic income for the poor has been around at least since St. Thomas More pondered the topic 500 years ago in the court of Henry VIII. Napoleon apparently liked the idea. U.S. founding father Thomas Paine was an active proponent after the American Revolution. Even disgraced president Richard Nixon floated its potential as a means to tackle poverty.