Argus

It should be pilloried because it would bankrupt the country. The fact that nations have elements of Socialism doesn't mean the more you have the better. A minimum income would not only be unsustainable to the tax base it would throw business into chaos. Who's going to work a minimum wage job if they can get as much at home doing nothing?

The idea of a basic minimum income is that those people would be reliant on the state anyway. Welfare has to exist for a certain portion of the population.

But, in theory, you could remove a lot of the government programs if you just gave them the money directly. AND not penalize them if they do get a job to supplement that income, which is the case with Welfare. 

I agree that it's not terribly practical, because there's a whole poverty industry that would have to go away. 

The only way a basic income works is if it's handed out with no strings attached. That means everyone making minimum wage or more would get it in addition to the people who are unemployable. The cost would bankrupt us.

I've seen the calculations on the current cost of income support vs a basic income and doing away with the former doesn't even come close to paying for the latter.