If UBI were to be implemented in the US, there's no way it'd be $5900/mo. Andrew Yang's plan (https://2020.yang2020.com/what-is-freedom-dividend-faq/), which was actually realistic, would've given out $1000 per month.

FY2021 budget is about $5T. Private healthcare spending, which is basically just a private tax is another $1.2T. So, we're starting with a "real" budget of $6.2T.

This is about 2-3X the budget.

Then of course, you can begin walking the number backwards at tax time, and can recover more from folks at the top end of the wealth and income spectrum to offset.

didn't give them $5,900 monthly, that was annual. $5,900 monthly would be more than most people in US make after tax.

This study gave a single (USD-equivalent) $5,900 payment, not a recurring monthly payment. The benefit was demonstrated to last a number of months.

It's worth comparing this to the US median income. That's about $32k annually, which equals $2,666 / month. I wouldn't expect a universal basic income program to attempt to be an equivalent alternative to earning the median income.

Definitely agree that doing this per month per citizen would be infeasible, though an interesting alternative is doing a negative income tax.

Effectively UBI but declines as the person makes money.

Some rough calculations:

In 2019 there were 34m people in poverty[1], lets assume 2 people per household (lower than nationwide average of ~3) so 17m households.

Topping each of them up to above the poverty line (~13k/y/person) would be 26k / household / year would be 442bn (and that's assuming all people below poverty line make 0 dollars).

Not bad considering the government already spends over twice that (1tr) on welfare each year[3].

Like others have said healthcare, housing issues etc would still be very damaging to some, but it's an interesting concept that could put every person in the country above the poverty line for not that much $$.

I also like that it (theoretically) still encourages working since a) poverty line is still a lower quality of life. and b) when you're below the line and make more money, the government gives you less $$ but less than you are making. i.e. if you make an extra 2 dollars, the government stopped reduces by 1, or something akin to that.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_income_tax

[2] https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2020/demo/p60-27...

[3] https://www.budget.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/CRS%20Report%20-...

Yes, the GDP for the US in 2020 was ~21T and 15T is quite large in perspective.

However, this UBI would generate tax income to offset. In fact, its been stated that welfare like food stamps (SNAP) actually brings in more 170% revenue vs. assistance provided [1]. If this is tax revenue positive (even if the return isn't as high as food stamps), why would the cost be a concern?

[1] https://4thworldmovement.org/food-stamps-waste-money/

It was a one-time payment, not a monthly recurring one.

For comparison the Federal Budget submitted for 2019 was 4.4 Trillion dollars. Almost 1 Trillion was Military. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget

Not sure how you calculate things like tax credits and other methods of inflation/printing money.

This wasn't a monthly stipend (and it wasn't UBI) - it was one time payment.

Even if we were talking UBI, this calculation is pretty meaningless; nobody believes a version of UBI would be rolled out without tax changes.

I'm no UBI proponent. However, I think most UBI proposals have tax adjustments for those with income (better proposals are gradients, not step functions). So not all 210 million adults get it long term...

Recipients in the video didn't receive 5,900 every month, just once.

I wonder about the GDP, because it took $3 trillion dollars to keep the country humming when less than 30% of the workforce was thrown into turmoil for a few months.

Why do this for someone making 200k/year? I’d imagine we’d select people below a certain income level

I think UBI would work with half as much cash. Maybe 4k / month if it isn't in addition to free healthcare. $4k per month is how much I spent in NYC not including health insurance.

Or 10 percent of US Army budget

I still don't see why this should be universal. It's a nice slogan but it's not unreasonable to have a cutoff.

Money Printer go brrrrrr

It is clear that the Modern Monetary policy is one of infinite spending so why not... by the end of the year we will probably 1/2 to that number in COVID relief anyway