1) https://medium.com/basic-income/universal-basic-income-as-the-social-vaccine-of-the-21st-century-d66dff39073

2) http://www.scottsantens.com/reddit-robots-and-resources-why-I-got-into-the-idea-of-basic-income-and-how-we-can-go-about-implementing-it

3) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-santens/why-should-we-support-the_b_7630162.html

Essentially, we’re already paying for half a basic income, but across over 100 government programs, deductions, tax credits, subsidies, and the like. It would be far more efficient and lead to far better outcomes to not do that and just provide a single universal amount to everyone.

If we then consider the extra revenue we’d need to raise, there are a multitude of options to cross that $1.5 gap, and it is up to the electorate to decide which option or mix of options they like best. Maybe it will be a value-added tax in combination with a carbon tax and financial transaction tax. Maybe it will be a land value tax or a national flat tax. It’s up to us to decide, but any way you look at it, we will save more than what we spend to make it happen because not having a basic income is more expensive than having it.

Look at the costs of crime, of the health care system, of child poverty, of chronic insecurity, and everything else and it comes to a far greater total than a universal basic income. For whatever reason we’re fine wasting all that money right now. We’re fine spending $50,000 a year to house and feed someone in prison, despite the ability to just give them $12,000 a year to prevent prison from ever happening for that person. We’re fine spending an extra $200 per month on our health insurance premiums because we don’t understand that cost is paying for the poor health outcomes of people without basic incomes.

Basically, it’s all pretty ridiculous to look at what we’re doing right now as being in any way cheaper than basic income. If we look at total costs, UBI is extremely affordable, and more to the point entirely necessary due to the effects of technology on the labor market.

1) Productivity gains from automation have gone to the pockets of the 1% almost exclusively.
2) Informal caregivers and stay-at-home moms provide a tremendous benefit to society but are not recognized monetarily.