To the cost argument: to say "it would be hard to manage efficiently" makes it looks like most first-world countries don't already have a massively successful i

To the cost argument: to say "it would be hard to manage efficiently" makes it looks like most first-world countries don't already have a massively successful income tax collection program of some kind. They do. Tax rates could be set so anyone at the minimum income wouldn't pay; anyone at that level to "middle class" (or whatever) would pay back part of it in taxes; and anyone above a certain level would pay back more than the minimum income. Would some people be taking home less overall? Yeah, sure. Same as any other welfare service. As for the idea that people won't work anymore and society would crumble - people like xboxes and new iphones and clothes and nice cars and even feeling productive. I tend to believe they'll keep working. Some will stop, sure. They're the same people who don't work now or are criminals.