Absolutely - poverty is a far more complex system than "not having enough money", and while UBI may (or may not) improve the standard of living for the very poo

Absolutely - poverty is a far more complex system than "not having enough money", and while UBI may (or may not) improve the standard of living for the very poor, alone it certainly wouldn't lift people out of poverty (or help them very much to lift themselves). But I believe the long term concern is different - what the hell do we do with an economy that no longer requires human labor to be productive? We're not there yet, but it doesn't look like the automation train is jumping the tracks any time soon. Truck and cab drivers have what, 15 or 20 years left? How long until factory labor is completely obsolete? Technological change eliminating jobs is nothing new, but this isn't farm workers moving to the city. This is jobs disappearing forever to be replaced by nothing. We need to start thinking about how we're going to divide up the stuff we produce when no one gets paid to produce it. Automation looks like the end of capitalism, and its up to us and our children how painful that's going to be. So no, UBI probably isnt the right answer, and anyway there won't be the political will for something like that until things get seriously worse. But as long as we continue to address our immediate problems it's an issue worth thinking about if we want to avoid much greater pain down the road.