As far as I know, everyone has a baseline amount of money in our society -- it's just that it comes from a lot of disparate sources. Some people get their base

As far as I know, everyone has a baseline amount of money in our society -- it's just that it comes from a lot of disparate sources. Some people get their baseline from a combination of housing vouchers, food stamps, medicaid, and other entitlements; others get their baseline from working 2 McJobs; others have good jobs that provide way beyond the baseline. If the baseline is provided in a more straightforward way (and, presumably, taxes on above-baseline amounts are raised accordingly) there may be very little economic distortion from the present state.