기본소득론의 두 토대 ― 자연법과 구약성경

초록

The present article is a tentative essay that seeks to anchor the legitimacy of the basic income theory on two foundations: natural law(Thomas Paine) and biblical laws(Leviticus and Deuteronomy). Representing the 17-18th century liberalist thinkers of Europe, Thomas Paine has made two claims: the land belongs to the entire community of human beings and thus its produce should be available to all human beings. He first proposed the idea of basic income though in an early undeveloped stage with the notion that landless citizens should not be more impoverished than in a natural state. He contended that a government should pay its citizens over a certain age some amount of money in the form of basic income by taxing land rents from landowning citizens. This 17-18th century European naturalist idea of land justice stands behind the late 20th century European intellectuals’ advocacy of basic income. While not making explicit reference to a modern idea of basic income, the Old Testament contains a number of social equity laws and mercy codes that make sure that even the poorest people should not be excluded from enjoying the produce of the God-given land. Assuming that the land as a gift of God belongs to the entire community of God’s covenant people and thus should not be exclusively owned by any individual, the Old Testament argues that the fruit of the covenant land should be enjoyed by the entire covenant people. The thesis of this essay is that the late 20th century idea of basic income can be substantiated by two lines of thought: natural law and Old Testament land laws. Two supporting argumentations have been made. First, the idea of natural law justifies the idea of basic income based on its understanding of land. Secondly, several land-related laws of the Old Testament proclaim the availability of the land and its produce to every member of the covenant community and thus forbids the exclusion of its poorest members from enjoying what the land produces. Further, this paper makes clear that the Old Testament’s land justice laws are not dissimilar from the natural law’s idea of land in advocating the idea of basic income.

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