1) Most UBI proposals do not increase taxes. Some do, but are offset by the extra income.
Despite sounding like socialism, UBI actually capitalizes on unmonetized goods/services or wasted wealth, including natural resources, automated technologies, and/or wasteful bureaucracies. These are forms of real wealth that exist without being utilized for the public good and are not produced by individuals, therefore do not require taxation. Thirty-seven years ago, Alaska passed a form of UBI that shares oil wealth with all residents without increasing their tax burden. It has been shown to have myriad benefits for society, from better educational outcomes to more healthcare access for all, because it's simply extra income. Presidential candidate Andrew Yang's proposal draws funds from a diverse set of sources and partly from gains in automation, while Zoltan Istvan's proposal monetizes federal lands, and Milton Friedman's past UBI proposal focused on replacing bureaucratic waste with direct income to citizens.
2) It grows overall wealth in the population by monetizing non-labor wealth or eliminating waste.
The best example of monetizing a public good is federal lands, a proposal by current Republican candidate Zoltan Istvan. Federal lands in America are owned by the people and held by the government. They are worth trillions, yet are unmonetized. Monetizing the land by leasing it for conditional use by businesses would unlock wealth that currently doesn't exist. By giving the land owners - us - our share, we will raise the incomes of every American, therefore our economic prosperity, financial endeavors, and personal freedom. Side effects include ending poverty and homelessness forever.
Likewise, taxing robots is not like taxing people. By placing a VAT or federal sales tax down the supply chain for automated tech goods, we can take a small slice of the automated wealth that is displacing workers and forcing them to pivot into industries where they have less skills thus are paid less. By the numbers, many of those workers don't return to work at all. In the heartland states that saw manufacturing disappear, only about half have returned to work. Of those who didn't, half applied for disability and many did not qualify. State-of-the-art robotics and machining are driving the rise of Amazon, etc. and leading to the closure of 30% of malls/retail and the death of small business/Main Street consumer culture. In this context, the ethics of 'taxation is theft' does not apply, because robots produce the wealth, not a human, and is displacing that human altogether from their ability to work - a problem that will only accelerate with new technology (Artificial Intelligence, 3D printing, advanced machining and robotics, deep learning and machine learning, nanotechnology, etc.).
3) Putting real buying power into the hands of customers supercharges capitalism.
Economists agree that UBI will grow the economy significantly. It means more buying and selling. More entrepreneurship. More production of goods and services. More demand. More supply. More wealth. Keynes proved after the Great Depression that fluidizing the money supply stimulates the economy. His public works plan was meant to be temporary, but UBI is permanent. In fact, it's hyper-sustainable, because wealth production is amplified as technology advances.
4) It has benefits for people who work outside the marketplace, like parents, artists, philanthropists, religious leaders, entrepreneurs, and students.
Many people don't realize that entrepreneurship requires capital, and many entrepreneurs spend years hemorrhaging money in product development before even participating in the market in order to receive revenues. In most cases, businesses fail. New restaurants in New York, for instance, have a 90% failure rate due to high costs, complex regulations, and strong competition. Imagine paying your employer to work for them and working overtime almost every day - that's the reality for many entrepreneurs who want to build for their community. Clearly, capital will allow more entrepreneurs to enter the marketplace in order to serve demand for goods and services. In turn, this will increase competition, supply, innovation - and drive down prices.
Mothers, fathers, artists, philanthropists, religious leaders, and students do not receive pay for the incredibly important work that they do. In fact, they do it BECAUSE it's important and vital to human culture. Economists recognize that this means they are left out of the calculus of an economy, which is measured in dollars. Not surprisingly, empowering these kinds of people will ultimately help the economy because...
5) ...unpaid work exponentiates future wealth creation and preservation.
Economic prosperity allows healthy and happy people to form more cohesive and better-functioning communities, allowing for more education and better health. This in turn makes human labor more valuable and lessens socioeconomic costs like healthcare, crime, waste and obsolescence, drug abuse, and mental illness, which detract from the overall wealth of a population. Universal basic income will have second and third order effects that will propel humanity into a mysterious and prosperous direction.
6) It will slow the rise of socialism.
By almost all metrics, America is increasingly accepting of socialism. While many argue that mixed economies like in Scandinavia are ideal, some point out that socialism is merely sharing wealth in a way that is fair. Unfortunately, many socialists today espouse old dangerous ideas, such as forcibly reorienting power systems between workers/owners/managers/staff or allowing government to own the means of production. Both of these are proven throughout history to spell the death of the civilization or worse.
Why is socialism on the rise? The growing wealth gap.
Universal Basic Income is the best way to solve this problem, because it does so by supercharging capitalism and solving the concerns around the wealth gap, particularly in housing, healthcare, and education, which have become unaffordable to many folks as the middle class erodes. Thus, UBI is a form of insurance against communism and an effective strategy to preserve the American way.
