UBI in the existing system would indeed not work. You have to change the existing system, which is expensive and hopelessly inefficient in its current form. Bas

UBI in the existing system would indeed not work. You have to change the existing system, which is expensive and hopelessly inefficient in its current form. Basically we have a complex system, depending on where you live, that consists of insurances, taxes, massive government programs, etc. On top of that we have minimum wages, child benefits, state pensions, etc. Most UBI interpretations take a very narrow view of handouts that have to be financed. So they look at the cost and conclude that it's too expensive without looking at the savings and benefits. You have to look at the whole system for this to make sense. If you are working today and you start receiving UBI on top of your salary that would be very nice because now you have more money. Of course that's not what would happen. Instead you'd receive UBI and less salary from your employer and you'd pay less unemployment insurance. That's great for the employer because now they have their labor cost slashed. So, they are getting richer. But of course they'd get taxed on their profits instead and of course their competitors would have the same benefit and would maybe lower their prices. The point here is that this would have a ripple effect throughout the system. And then there are other benefits as well. People pay for unemployment insurance, pensions, etc. With UBI, a portion of the benefits from that would be covered so you could get away with paying less or even nothing at all for that. Mandatory unemployment insurance might disappear completely. Same with state pensions. This could all be replaced with UBI plus optional programs that you buy into on a voluntary basis. My point is that it's a complex balance of costs that are moved around that would finance this. It has massive benefits in the form of a more agile labor market, less poverty, more economic spending, etc. It also has negative effects in that it wipes out a lot of "fake" work in the form of people working in the existing system doing all the bookkeeping, double checking, and what not. They'd be freed up to do some real work. Governments are amongst the largest employers in many countries. This is also why it is so hard to do it properly because the existing system resists change and this would be a very disruptive system wide change that impacts a lot of people. Doing UBI on top of the existing system won't work. It would have to go. Doing it badly, just means making the existing system even more complicated and less efficient.