Everyone pretty much has basic income by the standards of a poorer place or time. The issue is people adjust their expectations based on what other people have.

Everyone pretty much has basic income by the standards of a poorer place or time. The issue is people adjust their expectations based on what other people have. So things like air conditioning would have once been considered a luxury are now considered a necessity by many. People will likely feel poor if the average income is much higher than what they have. To get rid of the feeling of poverty one would need to make income more equal, but we know that's not so great: http://paulgraham.com/ineq.html http://paulgraham.com/ineq.html