Evelyn, It is well known that Milton Fredman argued for a negative income tax in Capitalism and Freedom (1962). But I recently came across a simlar suggestion by George Stigler in "The Economics of Minimum Wage Legislation," AER 36 (June 1946). Stigler wrote, "There is great attractiveness in the proposal that we extend the personal income tax to the lowest income brackets with negative rates in these brackets" p. 365. Dan Hammond