[MarcusVorenus]

Basic income is not a left vs right issue. Lots of libertarians (including Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek) support basic income as a more efficient safety net than government-run programs.

[brazzy]

Uh... how exactly do they see "basic income" and "government-run" as opposites?

[webXL]

Here's an example: vouchers vs. one size fits all public schools. They're not opposites; vouchers just free up resources by using market forces to prevent good money to go to bad schools.

[dragonwriter]

There's two sides:

(1) Collecting the money used, and (2) And choosing how to spend money for the benefit of the beneficiaries.

Both basic income and traditional welfare rely on government for #1, true. The difference is in #2.

[tbrownaw]

It has less knobs for politicians to twiddle.

[dragonwriter]

> Basic income is not a left vs right issue.

Yes, it is.

> Lots of libertarians (including Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek) support basic income as a more efficient safety net than government-run programs.

Well, first, "libertarian" says nothing about left vs. right. "Lots of libertarians support one side of the issue" doesn't mean it doesn't split left vs. right.

Second, neither Milton Friedman nor Friedrich Hayek can be counted as current supporters of, well, anything.