Rich Conway
Footballguy
1. Most proposals for BIG/UBI are as a replacement for most means-tested safety net programs (e.g. welfare, unemployment, foodstamps, etc.). The argument your friend appears to be making is "We shouldn't propose BIG as a replacement for means-tested safety nets because someone else will drop the replacement part." That's a pretty silly argument and could literally be used as an argument against every proposal ever; "We shouldn't propose X because someone somewhere will misconstrue it as a proposal for Y, and Y is a bad idea."Which I think is a brilliant idea that can never work. I think it would be vastly superior to what we have in place now, except for three things that I think are not solvable, and are proven not solvable at every possible turn.
1) You should use basic income as a replacement for entitlement programs. It's structurally wildly superior. But nobody will ever replace them, they will only want to add this to them, because otherwise there will be some person somewhere with a very specific set of circumstances who loses in the new construct.
2) You have to accept that there are people who are not capable of using that money in a responsible way, spending it on the things you think they should (like health insurance or health care) and who will end up in the gutter. You can't afford UBI and entitlements. So you have to be comfortable with people dying in the gutter. And, as a society, we are not. Which makes entitlement programs a superior option.
3) Whatever level we set the UBI at initially, it is only a matter of a short period of time before it is ordained that it is "not enough and not fair" and we need to raise it to another, higher, arbitrary number. And since all the numbers are arbitrary, just like they are for Min Wage, there is no limit to what it should be, and no logical stopping point for when it is enough.
2. This isn't an argument against BIG either. Yes, some people will spend the money unwisely. Some people spend their means-tested safety net money unwisely. How we get money to people (BIG vs. current program) is unrelated to how they spend it.
3. Obviously, the number would need to be indexed to inflation or some other annual cost of living index. That's a no brainer. Regarding what number to start at, there will naturally be all sorts of proposals any thought processes. Again, that's not really an argument against doing it at all. Consider an analogy to speed limits or blood-alcohol limits on driving. That there might be disagreement on what an appropriate speed limit is or what blood-alcohol level is truly impaired (and there will be disagreement) is NOT a good reason to suggest that we don't need speed limits or drunk driving laws at all.