The high level idea is that it's a redistribution mechanism, and then reclaimed via. taxation. For example, say everyone gets a check for $1000 each month. This

The high level idea is that it's a redistribution mechanism, and then reclaimed via. taxation. For example, say everyone gets a check for $1000 each month. This is just like getting money from anywhere else - you have to pay taxes on it. If you're making $3000/month from your other jobs, your income is now $4000/month, and you pay taxes accordingly. People with higher incomes would ultimately subsidize people with lower incomes. So a basic income could be implemented without changing taxes, or even with lowering taxes. Some benefits of basic incomes: - Social programs are massively inefficient and politicized, whereas just sending everyone a check each month would be much simpler. - If automation rapidly reduces the demand for workers, you could end up with a large group of unemployed people who just experienced a big change in standard of living. This is how revolutions happen. - You raise the floor of where a person can fall. That is, you ensure that everyone can afford basic food and medicine. This in turn I suspect would mean less crime, due to a less desperate population. Potential downsides: - There are people who can't take care of themselves, and we'll still need social programs for them. - If basic income is too high, people who would otherwise work will stop working, and if it's too low, it's not effective. One risk is that we see changing lifestyles - for example, if you wanted to spend your days biking around the country, you could easily do that on $1000/month. I know some people who would be happy with a laptop hacking on OSS all day - maybe good for society, but perhaps not for the GDP. - It could be used just to inflate down peoples standard of living slow enough that there's not a revolution.