[navigator01]

I'm glad this is the top comment, because I don't often see common sense critiques of UBI that acknowledge price adjustment.

We can't just print money, that is obviously going to fail as it always does. So... Will we try to implement UBI with wealth transfers? Taxing the rich and giving to the poor?

That seems to be the only alternative to printing money, meaning that UBI is not an innovative idea whatsoever. It's just wealth redistribution.

[erentz]

Of course you don’t print money. You tax everyone more. And you give everyone a share of that tax.

> UBI is not an innovative idea whatsoever.

It’s not claimed to be. The idea is literally hundreds of years old and is pretty well understood. There seem to be a lot who are just coming across it and applying lazy thinking and biases to it and mostly getting it wrong.

[greedo]

Again, the math simply doesn't work out. The tax increases will be huge, and since most of the real tax revenue is in the middle class, you'll have to bump their tax rates up dramatically.

Giving UBI of $10K/year to every citizen of the US is $3.25T. That's more than all the Federal revenues in 2017 (0). And $10K isn't enough. So you'll end up needing confiscatory tax rates on everyone, and possible a wealth tax (not just income). The distorting effect of this level of taxation would be incredible, just from an economic viewpoint. From a political view, it would lead to revolution.

[0] - http://federal-budget.insidegov.com/l/120/2017-Estimate