Realistically, something like UBI is probably coming. While the idea of simply giving people free money for simply existing maybe morally or ethically dubious or downright repellent, we’re *already* doing that through the welfare state. As the video points out, things could be vastly more efficient if the welfare system was swept aside and replaced with direct payouts.
There are about 250 million adult US citizens. With the videos suggestion of $1000 per month per adult, that would be about three *trillion* dollars per year. The 2018 US FedGuv budget is $4.1 trillion, with $440 billion in deficit. The expenditures are $1 trillion for Social Security, $582 billion for Medicare, $404 billion for Medicaid. Replacing Social Security with a flat $1000/month would be a political nightmare.
As previously mentioned on this blog, there’s not enough current welfare spending to simply replace it with a UBI that provides an above-poverty-level income. Additional funds would be needed, and I have doubts that jacking up taxes on the rich, as the video suggests, would do the job. They would simply find ways to dodge the taxes, and who could blame them. The only way to make the UBI work at current economic levels would be to reduce the excess population, or to accept a below-poverty-level UBI. Personally, though, an extra, say, $500 a month wouldn’t bother me too much, especially since I don’t benefit from any welfare programs despite being poor.
Replace low-skilled labor with robots, maybe the economy would grow enough to support a proper UBI, dunno.