By simply cutting every citizen a monthly check and getting rid of most of the welfare state and tax code complexities we use today, everyone could be better off tomorrow, rich and poor alike. If machines are laboring in our stead, and aren’t buying any of the fruits of that labor, should we not receive the paychecks that aren’t going to them or us, so as to buy those fruits?

From every logical perspective, a universal basic income (UBI) makes sense, and has been proven to work everywhere it has been implemented.

But some essentially American core thing in me continues to rebel against it.

Sure. Call it a "pension", and I'm fine with it.

Call it UBI, and it bugs me.

Despite the fact that it works, it is logical, it is efficient, and solves many of the problems of complexity and gerrymandering we experience with the US tax code today.

This article is a longread, but definitely a thought-provoking one.