The real case for universal basic income in my view is not financial, it is moral.
To live a satisfying life
a person must spend that life doing important things such as raising a
family, holding a job that is satisfying and fulfilling, being a good member of
one's community. For those roles to be satisfying, people have to have
responsibility for what those institutions do. Have responsibility for
the decisions they make. One of the things that the lucky people in society
already have is a life in which they know they can take responsibility for
their own actions;
they can live the lives they see fit. What a universal basic income will do is make
that same possibility for a satisfying life
open to everyone, and that would be a fulfillment of the American dream that
goes far beyond the usual notions of a nice house in the suburbs.