[danielweber]

Living in an expensive area is a consumption choice.

If I live in a mansion in that Grover, NC, would you say that my expenses were high so I deserve more basic income?

High prices are the market telling you to consider looking someplace else to live.

This is how the good ideas of progressive intellectuals get destroyed: other progressives want to weigh them down with all sorts of other social engineering baggage. (Conservative intellectuals have good ideas that get destroyed by other conservatives, too.)

[khill]

I agree that choosing an expensive lifestyle is a consumption choice. I was just trying to make the point that it's difficult for a government to determine what basic income is "enough to live comfortably on".

Those kinds of decisions alienate voters and, as a result, are desperately avoided by congress critters.

[Jd]

Doubly true if you are talking about a globally applicable basic income.