What a $1,000 Per Month Universal Basic Income Would Look Like
Opponents say it’s impossible, but they’re wrong
A universal basic income, with the government providing, say, $1,000 a month to each and every American, is impossible. It would cost too much.
That is the most common objection to the idea of universal basic income, or UBI, which is growing more and more popular every year. Chicago is proposing a UBI trial, Barack Obama is signing on to the concept, and other pilots are ongoing around the globe. Providing $1,000 a month to every citizen would mean spending something like an additional $3.9 trillion a year. That is equivalent to one-fifth of the American economy — and roughly equal to every penny the federal government currently spends, on everything from building bridges to fighting wars to caring for the elderly to prosecuting crimes to protecting wetlands.
If politicians were to fully finance that expansion of benefits through the tax code as it is structured now, it would mean steep income tax increases not just on the wealthiest Americans, but also on middle-income Americans. You could tax away every penny the top 1 percent of earners make each year, and it would still not come close to paying for a full-fat UBI. “Nothing in the history of this country suggests Americans are ready to add that kind of…
