> you give the same money to everyone, even if they're a billionaire. To make up for this, you raise the taxes a commensurate amount on the people who don't ne

> you give the same money to everyone, even if they're a billionaire. To make up for this, you raise the taxes a commensurate amount on the people who don't need it (and more for the really rich people, because the idea is wealth redistribution This has already happened in various countries like the UK until the 1970's. In New Zealand the top income tax was 66%, and a "UBI" for everyone 60 and over, regardless of their income, was introduced. Of course those with high incomes paid up to 2/3rds of this back to the govt as income tax. In the 1980's, NZ followed the UK in slashing income taxes to the levels found in the US. The qualifying age for the "Universal Basic Income" was progressively increased to 65, with tentative plans to raise the age even further in the near future. If the experiment there was to be extended, then the top income tax would have remained at 66% and the qualifying age for this "UBI" progressively lowered in stages down to 18 as the country could afford it. To see why the experiment was cancelled, I think we should look at why the income tax was lowered in these countries. Perhaps the rich lobbied for less taxes, and threatened to shift their businesses to Australia and other countries.