The latter is extremely vulnerable to corruption and exploitation. The housing will become dilapidated, the food will become as bad as public school lunches. If

The latter is extremely vulnerable to corruption and exploitation. The housing will become dilapidated, the food will become as bad as public school lunches. If you fix it to the living wage as determined by economic theory, you are getting a real currency you can utilize, vs. easily corrupted resources. It is very easy to say "I'm supposed to get a check for $X, but I got $Y" but hard to protest poorly maintained state housing and food rations. You do bring up an important consideration, but the thing is that something like BIG is just that - a fixed paycheck derived by increased taxes. I almost wouldn't be surprised if switching over that today would barely increase tax rates over current social welfare in place, just because it cuts out a significant managerial overhead when its just "ship checks to all social numbers over 18 that are still alive" or even "ship checks to registered voters", though the latter would probably be struck down in court. People who can't manage the money they get would still end up in conditions like anyone broke today, except in their case they can expect new money next month. Unlike the perpetual hole you easily get yourself in currently, if you are getting a living income regularly, rebounding after declaring bankruptcy isn't as catastrophic. It should, hopefully, only require some moderate counseling to manage money, else you have a more severe issue that is best solved through mental health professionals.