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UK is struggling to pay its meagre unemployment and disability benefits. The idea that we can pay a meaningful amount of money to everyone seems fanciful to me.

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Decades of Conservative government will do that.

I mean, I don’t think it’s a fairytale idea; the implication of the opening discussion on wealth inequality is that the US would need to raise taxes fairly significantly to do so.

The question is really just whether the political will to do so exists. If that’s what you’re referring to as fanciful, I guess I can see where you’re coming from.

Some back of the envelope maths suggests that to pay every American adult 1k/month would require 3tn USD per year, or about 11% of total GDP (12K per person per year, 258m adults -> 3tn dollars, total GDP around 27tn). That's about 3x as much as what the US spends on its military. And 1k / month doesn't strike me as a big amount.

I just don't really see how people think UBI is realistic in the current budgetary structure.

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