Originally Posted by
Spectral
I agree with the front half of this.
I don't have a strong feeling on the question. I don't begrudge paying for a reasonable standard of living including basic healthcare, housing, and food for everyone in a rich country. The exact right quantity of spending is right seems like a technical question and I ultimately don't care that much what the number is.
As mentioned earlier in the thread though, my main skepticism derives from a strong suspicion that people will fail to provide themselves with basic healthcare, housing, and food if there aren't programs in place that are more paternalistic than UBI. We have a fair few people that aren't good decision makers; a close friend of mine has a brother who has severely impaired executive function and he simply cannot plan ahead at all. Obviously that's an edge case, but weak executive function isn't exactly a rare trait.