Ya I do agree, which is why I mentioned it at the end of my comment :). However, basic income, elegant though it may be, is likely impractical at the scale that

Ya I do agree, which is why I mentioned it at the end of my comment :). However, basic income, elegant though it may be, is likely impractical at the scale that would be necessary, consider a quick calculation: $1k/month for every US citizen over the age of 18. That's roughly 235 million people, each getting $12k/year. That's 2.8 trillion dollars. Just for the basic income, not funding any other part of government (for scale, the entire federal budget is currently 3.8 trillion). I am optimistic about the UBI, and I think we would recover an enormous amount of those dollars in increased economic activity, but I think it's not quite ready for prime time yet. It needs to be tested on a small scale to see whether or not the purported economic benefits will materialize and in sufficient quantity to counter the enormous cost of such a program (though i'm optimistic that they may).