9 minutes ago, Oberon_Command said:13 trillion / 323 million is a bit over 40k. I'm not aware of any UBI concepts where participants are to be paid $40k per year. Pilot programs are typically paying something in the $16-24k range (eg, the one currently underway in Ontario) and I would assume that a full-scale program would be similar. I don't know where you got that $40k number, but I suggest that your dismissal of the concept is founded in this assumption and not any realistic conception of how UBI would actually be implemented.
Well, it would have to be implemented in a way that gives a decent quality of life in a situation where there's massive unemployment, right? Add in the fact that health insurance in the USA is prohibitively expensive when not employed (My wife has an ER bill for $30,000+ I've been refusing to pay for years now), Adjust it for inflation for a decade, and assume it's for the "typical" household of 2 adults 2 children (replacement rate, basically), and $40k~ is way closer to it. If there was mass unemployment and only $24k~ guaranteed income, there would be mass riots/revolution.
This is also speculative to the future, population will be higher if/when it's actually implemented, so there's even greater costs than with the 323 million people estimate. Currently you could knock off around 40m~ people from that estimate for underage/illegal immigrants.