[gaius]

I like the idea of a basic income but it suffers from the flaw at the heart of democracy: "A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury" -- Alexander Tytler. So say we have a minimum income guarantee that will cover a basic standard of living, and if you want luxuries, you have to work. Every election, that minimum will be ratcheted up, until it's completely unaffordable. This structural flaw needs to be fixed in some way before we can proceed.