I think the Swiss are thinking about doing something like that right now. Part of the problem with giving a basic income is how much to give people due to vari

I think the Swiss are thinking about doing something like that right now. Part of the problem with giving a basic income is how much to give people due to variances in the cost of living. Someone in east san jose or oakland will need much more money than someone in East Nowhere, Midwest to acquire the same things. I'm not saying that can't be solved and then done, but it will be complicated and as you mentioned a very hard sell. EDIT: Food stamps could totally be designed to be a long term program that every american is eligible for. One way would be through a tax deduction/refund. It would need to be more than a refund, though, to cover instances where people don't have enough taxes to use the entire deduction. Also, it assumes people would be smart enough to use it for food and not big screen tv's. I think extending the current program to everyone would do a better job of ensuring everyone has access to food than just giving money. The current program basically gives you a credit card every month that can only be spent on certain food items (eg no alcohol). Sending those to every family once a month (or allowing it to be picked up from a dmv-esque office for people without an address), would ensure that people have access to food (there are already measures in place to prevent someone from selling their foodstamp card for money). heck, if you wanted to get fancy, you could even allow/extend the card to be spent at restaurants.