People in other countries, especially in safety-net-friendly Europe, seem more open to the idea of a basic income than people in the U.S. The Swiss are considering a basic income proposal. Most of the candidates in Finland’s upcoming parliamentary elections support the idea. But in the U.S., the issue is still a political non-starter for mainstream politicians, due to lingering suspicions about the fairness and practicality of a basic income, as well as a rejection of the premise that automation is actually erasing white-collar jobs. Hence Santens’ do-it-yourself approach.

“My solution was to turn to crowdfunding, so as to immediately empower myself and others to advocate for the basic incomes of everyone else,” Santens says.

Unlike most crowdfunders, Santens is not asking for seed money for a specific project, like a tech startup, a nonprofit organization, or a feature film. Nor is he asking for money for a specific problem like unpaid medical bills. He’s asking for free money to live his life. Any additional money that he crowdfunds, above $1,000 per month, will be donated to other basic-income activists who are doing the same thing. However, he will keep other money that he earns from working as a freelance writer. He says the same thing would happen with a government-funded basic income: People would keep the additional money they earn from their jobs.

The crowdfunding approach to basic income has shown some promise: A group of more than 19,000 basic-income advocates in Germany have funded 11 people so far with living stipends of 1,000 euros per month, no strings attached. The first few winners, chosen by a lottery, started receiving their basic incomes in September 2014. The eleventh winner was announced May 7.

Jason Burke Murphy, a basic-income activist and philosophy professor at Elms College in Massachusetts, has been following the German project with delight. “This project worked better than I thought it would,” he says. “The numbers of visits and the media response was really impressive.” Indeed, the stories told by the winners are inspiring. For example, one recipient is using his newfound freedom to write his dissertation. Another winner quit his job at a call center to study and become a teacher. Perhaps one anonymous commentator summed it up best: “I did not realize how unfree we all are.”

Santens’ crowdfunding foray has been embraced not only by liberals or progressives who are warm to government benefits but by some libertarians as well, such as Matt Zwolinski, a philosophy professor at the University of San Diego. In his view, a basic income would shrink the bureaucratic nightmare of the current $1 trillion social safety net. He applauds Santens’ effort because it provides proof that basic income can work without government involvement.

“A lot of people assume that if social insurance, or mail delivery, or a basic income is a good idea, then it automatically follows that we ought to have the state administer it,” says Zwolinski. “But it doesn’t automatically follow at all. Sometimes—I think a lot of times—important social goals are better realized through voluntary decentralized action than through the kind of coercive centralized control characteristic of the modern state.”