I think a lot of the interest over UBI comes from wealth disparity (rich getting much, much richer, middle class shrinking). On top of this, people are working

I think a lot of the interest over UBI comes from wealth disparity (rich getting much, much richer, middle class shrinking). On top of this, people are working harder than ever and salaries are mostly stagnant. In other words, wealth is being siphoned away from those creating value into the pockets of people who already have immense wealth. I'm personally more in favor of real social dividends: a public fund that owns stock in publicly-traded companies and returns some portion as a dividend, and some portion it reinvests into buying more stock. The idea being people are getting a dividend (like UBI) but it's based on overall productivity so there's a connection between working and the payout (obviously, the connection is a few steps removed, but it's there nonetheless). Regarding democracy/ownership, I think it's somewhat debatable. We're told the government represents us, but how many of your interests are represented by the Democratic party? How many by the Republicans? I can safely say at most 10-15% of my interests are ever really taken into account in a two-party system. I'd say people who are incredibly wealthy have a much greater say in political outcomes than the general population. In essence, we are told we have ownership over the state, but in reality our ownership share is collectively small.