This post Unfortunate : antiwork (reddit.com) reminded me of when I was campaigning for Andrew Yang (wanted a UBI of $1,000 a month for people age 18-65.
“How will we pay for it?” people asked.
A fair question.
the answer: “Partially with a swap out of multiple strings-attached welfare programs. It'll help a lot of people, such as those on disability who are too afraid to volunteer at a soup kitchen because if they are caught holding a ladle, they'll go to jail for fraud.”
I'd let that sink in before deciding if this would be a real conversation, or if that question, how are we going to pay for it, is just a thought-terminating cliche or not.