# Background Basic income, a policy proposal first introduced in the 16th century, has recently gained traction with futurist economists, technologists and politicians as the best policy response to address income inequality, projected mass unemployment resulting from automation, and provide a basic safety net that prevents abject poverty. The economic fallout resulting from the coronavirus crisis has triggered fresh enthusiasm to assess new approaches to capital and liquidity distribution. This presents a ripe opportunity to advance distributed, bottom-up approaches to basic income, which we believe can advance at a greater speed than federal implementations. ![](https://1656101452-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-MF-plPgBVol-RmDlK9f%2F-MF-viBMIPTSgBE6I76x%2F-MF-xHMXAKNsFWNFkNGy%2FTrade.png?alt=media\&token=db82eddc-e646-467e-9806-5e553f4c4992) --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://litepaper.gooddollar.org/background.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.