[maxerickson]

Administrative costs aren't all that high:

http://www.cbpp.org/research/romneys-charge-that-most-federa...

http://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/admin.html

Making the spending a couple percent more effective doesn't really even start to pay for spending 10x.

So administrative savings aren't actually all that important a consideration when it comes to a basic income (Put it this way: the programs at the first link could have 100x their current administrative costs and still cost considerably less than a basic income).

Replacing contingent benefits with a basic income should be a positive, it's just that the expected change can't be all that large compared to the numbers required for even a small basic income.

[ThomPete]

Administration isn't all there is to controlling whether someone is getting the right benefits or not.