Smart thinking. Maybe we'll get smart someday.

Billionaires would still be billionaires. They might have to give up 10% of their income.

But, to virtually end homelessness, hunger, and greatly reduce the amount of poverty in America, it seems like a very small price to pay.

Poor people spend money. I read a study somewhere that suggested every dollar in low income support brings three dollars into the economy.

Not to mention less stress-induced craziness swirling around. They might all live in bubbles, but when people crack anything can happen and usually does. I'm reminded of Tuchman's 'Distant Mirror' and her descriptions of the peasants slowly roasting their former masters.

It's plainly patriotic to support basic income -- what, we're supposed to be proud of the fact that we sport the worst income gap in human history? Being like medieval France is cool? Should we worship at the feet of kings and serve their every whim as our creed? I think not.

I'd also like to see super well-equipped and well-funded schools in the worst neighborhoods, able to provide three squares and counseling and family support. One of those kids is going to invent warp drive if we just give him the right resources. I want that warp drive to be American made.

As more and more jobs get automated, we will need ways to inject money into the system somehow. As long as work was the primary way to do that, the minimum wage helped alleviate the inflationary pressures of inflation. The Repubs forced us to give up that model since the 90's and have been busily destroying work as a means of support for the masses for longer than that.

A guaranteed minimum income seems like a good way to go, depending on how it is done. Of course, the only way to do that is to increase taxes on upper income and high wealth folks. Repubs whine about "income redistribution." In fact, income redistribution is the norm. It is the direction and volume of the flow that is the problem. Since Reaganomics, the direction has been increasingly upward, and the flow was given a huge boost last year by the Trump Taxes.

...to keep wages and benefits down.

reality - we absolutely WILL have something like a UBI at a point in the future - but they’re going to fight it every step of the fucking way so as to ensure the maximum pain for the most poor people possible before they have to let it happen.

go along with basic income? Waste of time...years away if ever.

where in my post do you see anything that suggests I think republican'ts "...are going to go along with basic income..."?

with puritan work ethic here maybe never.

lots of things are years away.

Many people just a decade ago thought gay marriage would never happen.

The only way to accomplish anything is to educate people about and keep pushing for it to happen.

Do you think we cannot have Welfare, unemployment insurance, or workman's comp?

As it is, this country tries to keep about 1 out of every 20 Americans unemployed by raising the Prime rate when unemployment drops to around 5%.