I think people are clever. And I think people want to do shit.

If the poor in Appalachia had a UBI, then a bunch of them would come up with cool ideas, and pursue them. Because, it has been proven that once the stress of meeting basic needs is met, people's health improves, their outlook on life improves, their creativity improves... just, everything gets better because they are not constantly in a heightened state of stress.

Will some people be lazy and never lift a finger again? Yeah. Sure. There are those people today, even without UBI.

But skimpy handouts and stop gaps (WIC, food stamps, Section 8, etc) don't cut it. They aren't guaranteed, they require certain hoops to be jumped through, etc, so they miss the key element that makes a UBI work: security.

I have no idea what someone in rural Appalachia, or the wastelands of Detroit might come up with, if they had a UBI and the gumption to make something... but I sure as hell want to see it! I want them to do something they are proud of, and that makes even more money, so they aren't totally reliant on the UBI.

That'd be cool...