How? It's the same amount of money, just redirected from existing welfare programs and redistributed via taxes.
Then wouldn't it follow that inflation would then take place all but entirely removing the utility of the basic income?
If you're making $10k/year and get another $10k from basic income, you'll be much better off even if somehow there is significant inflation.
Basic income isn't a magic wand to make everyone richer. It's an efficient way of guaranteeing that everyone can cover their basic needs, without the inefficiencies and harmful incentives of the current system.
I'm not even that conservative and I think that's ridiculous for an amount of money that doesn't even cover the rent in most cities.
The average spending per welfare recipient is roughly $25 a day[0] in the US that adds up to $9125 per person. 23%[1] of households currently receive some type of government benefit, while half of working individuals make less than 30 thousand dollars a year[2]. If you wished to provide basic income to just those making under 30 thousand a year my back of a napkin math says you would at a conservative estimate double the current expenditures and that program isn't basic income as much as welfare expansion.
>If you're making $10k/year and get another $10k from basic income, you'll be much better off even if somehow there is significant inflation.
If you doubled everyone's salaries, due to supply and demand, the price of every good would then double. Money is used to purchase goods and services that are produced using a finite set of resources. Those resources don't grow simply because you have printed more money.
[0]http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/05/04/the-avera...
[1]http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/jan/28/...
[2]http://dailycaller.com/2015/10/25/1-in-2-working-americans-m...
While there might be some inflation as the supply of money available to those with low- to median income increase spending, I don't think it would be sufficient to offset the base change.
On the other hand you would need to significantly increase taxes on upper-middle+ brackets to ensure no new money is introduced. After all they receive BI under this system too, which they'd effectively have to pay back and then some....
I'd support a move to a "Star Trek" economy but I just don't see how you pull it off.
The thinking is that the existence of extensive gov't social welfare programs make people feel as if they have contributed (via taxes) and this reduce their personal responsibility to work on behalf of the less fortunate. Likewise, it undermines their empathy for the less fortunate because "well, they already receive welfare - so if they remain poor it must be because they [are lazy/addicted to drugs/antisocial/etc.]".
I don't know if I agree with this argument; however, the cultural ramifications of BIG are certainly an important question to wrestle with.
Edit: clarification - the argument is that this belief ("I've done my part") is extended because BIG covers all sources of welfare rather than targeted toward specific populations or purposes (children, mothers, food, etc). When everyone receives social welfare payments (rather than just specific kinds of people) it more fully extends the "I've done my part" feeling to the larger population (rather than specific slices of the population) and reduces overall charitable action.