One thing: 360M people, but you probably wouldn't give newborns $10,000. Call it 230M adults over 18 years of age (per US Census data) and the numbers aren't qu

One thing: 360M people, but you probably wouldn't give newborns $10,000. Call it 230M adults over 18 years of age (per US Census data) and the numbers aren't quite as dire, though as you pointed out, still untenable. I would also point out that "universal basic income" does not necessarily have to displace regular income. Lots of UBI critics say it's unaffordable, in part because they consider it a replacement source of income, whereas as you've pointed out, that's largely impractical. A supplemental UBI would both be more affordable by society at large and have a similar impact, while minimizing the fears of the critics about how "people will just stop working". You would probably still have to work, but that's okay, because multiple studies have shown that even a modest guaranteed $250/mo can improve upward mobility for families, as well as other ancillary benefits such as reduced stress. I'd be interested to find out about the feasibility of the notion of "Basic", where everyone is guaranteed the basics (food, clothing, shelter, internet, healthcare) no matter what, and if you want more than that, you get a job. I've long suspected that you could rid the world of some huge percentage like 75% of its workforce and the remaining 25% would be able to provide for the rest, cutting down on costs and other things. For example, fewer people commuting would lead to fewer cars on the roads, leading to fewer accidents and fewer roads that need to be maintained and fewer offices that need to be built and powered on, and so on.