I make well above the basic income, so I presume most UBIs would be a net cost to me. However, I cannot imagine that a UBI-related tax would in any way disince

I make well above the basic income, so I presume most UBIs would be a net cost to me. However, I cannot imagine that a UBI-related tax would in any way disincentivize me from working, especially if it's applied across incomes. In fact, even for someone like me, I think the UBI would provide just a bit more emotional security -- knowledge that if a job or investment risk I took didn't pay out, there would still be food and housing for my family. In direct contravention of your story about artists, I recommend you read this article by Ann Bauer about how being rich is nearly necessary to make it as a novelist: http://www.salon.com/2015/01/25/sponsored_by_my_husband_why_its_a_problem_that_writers_never_talk_about_where_their_money_comes_from/ http://www.salon.com/2015/01/25/sponsored_by_my_husband_why_... Going from anecdotes, it is at least as easy to imagine a future in which better art and writing are created than can be created now as lifestyle security is extended to more creative people.