I've worked out the numbers and it is not impossibly expensive. First, you have to understand UBI is not intended to give someone a "comfortable lifestyle" with

I've worked out the numbers and it is not impossibly expensive. First, you have to understand UBI is not intended to give someone a "comfortable lifestyle" without working. Rather, it's to give someone a "comfortable survival" without working. In other words food, roof and odd necessities. In my figures I simply pegged the UBI to a part-time (20hrs) minimum wage job. When you subtract all the welfare programs that will be made unnecessary, the remaining cost is well within reach of relatively minor tax increases. (I am particularly partial to a usury tax). One of the big problems that economists are overlooking with relation to automation of the job market is that excessive government regulation, along with antitrust-worthy corporate practice, has created a huge administrative/bureaucratic burden, and it is from this that most new jobs are being created. In other words, BS work. Just look at how many administrative employees a doctors' office now has -- and we have to go to more and more specialists too. Meanwhile our actual quality of care has gone down, not up. Another good example, which I recently learned about, it is against the law for a computer program to generate a medical diagnosis. Heaven forbid that we might not need as many doctors one day. And the best example of all. The IRS is about to make it mandatory that you get your taxes done by a service provider (personal or by software). So what motivation does the government have tp simplify tax laws after that? None. Just keep making them more complex (so big companies can loophole) and in so doing create more BS jobs.