> If it were provided to everyone without regard to their other sources of income it would differ from other approaches like welfare

The trouble with that is that the math becomes impossible.

If everyone gets equal benefit, then there are only two possibilities:

1. It's so small as to be worthless. Your annual basic income check of $6.28 won't be able to buy combo #3 at the drive thru, let alone combo #1.

2. The tax bill is so huge it strangles the economy. There are 300 billion people in the United States, for them to each get even $1000/year, that's $3 trillion. And what's $1000? Most basic income stooges talk more about 5 figure numbers... so we'd need $30 trillion/year.

Where does that come from? It needs to be up front, since people will lose jobs first, and only decades later will 100% automation actually produce immeasurable wealth.