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[–] libby 0 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago 

I've liked it since reading Friedrich Hayek. While I'm an anarchist, I recognize there's probably going to be a state for now. I think to keep people from overthrowing said state (and probably replacing it with something worse) when they get upset about their own bad decisions, you need some social safety net. A basic income appears to be the cheapest way to provide a safety net with the fewest market distortions. That last point is the most important in my opinion. Messing with the price system is very damaging to our economy because prices signal what we should be producing/consuming more of based on scarcity and desire. When you screw that up you can get over consumption of scare resources, overproduction of things we don't need so much of, or shortages.

Basically, it does one of the things a government probably has to do nowadays in the least destructive way possible and is fairly low in bureaucratic overhead.