The author may not be very knowledgeable on this front. Fortunately, there are many economists all over the world working on exactly this idea. A basic income w

The author may not be very knowledgeable on this front. Fortunately, there are many economists all over the world working on exactly this idea. A basic income would not mean dismantling SS as Americans don't have Universal free healthcare. This is one of the ways in which implementing a basic income in the US would be different from say Sweden, and also more difficult. The idea, from what I understand, is that income tax would disappear and be replaced with a consumption tax. This consumption tax would operate exactly like sales tax in that it would be levied on all goods purchased. The consumption tax means that any time a transaction takes place - eg. any time someone consumes a good - they are paying for this system. This, then, naturally levies a tax bracketed by level of consumption. Exported goods would be sold without the tax. Imported goods would have the tax added to their price before sale. This is, obviously, a simplified explanation and the implementation in the American system would likely differ widely from this basic model, but it's likely the template from which any such system would start. For more information I'd highly recommend Basic Income: The Movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViywrpAyVdY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViywrpAyVdY