system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
I don't believe a universal basic income could work. Please CMV.

From a moral standpoint, I really like the idea of a universal basic income, but I don't see how it could work without causing an inflationary spiral. If everyone had a basic income, they wouldn't have to work to survive, which means you would have to pay them more to get them to do something they don't want to do. In addition, paying for a basic income would require some fairly major taxes of some form or another. This is going to drive up the price of labor, which will also drive up the price of goods, which means that suddenly your old basic income isn't enough to live on anymore. 

I'm aware that basic incomes have been successfully tried on a small scale before, but a small scale isn't going to lead to an inflationary spiral. Can someone explain to me how this could work on a national scale?
gpt
Are you in the US?

Assuming you are, consider that between welfare, SNAP, the earned income credit and the various state programs, we already have a basic income - it's just extremely complex and split between many different agencies.

If we were to enact a basic income, it would not necessarily involve spending or taxing much more than we do already. The main difference would be that people would no longer have to debase and humiliate themselves with all the bogus requirements we've attached to all the current programs.

As to people not working - the main thing is to ensure there are no income traps, which is much easier with a basic income program. You just have the income supplement roll off by, let's say, $0.75 per $1 of earned income. 

This would be better than the current system, where people can get into a situation where taking a job reduces their living standard (particularly at the point where they cease to qualify for Medicaid).