2 trillion dollars would be the cost of getting every American between 18-64 a universal basic income of $1,000 a month.

Simple math on that is 169 million Americans between that age is giving each one of them $12,000 a year.

But is that possible to pay for?

4.4 trillion was the federal budget in 2019.
3.4 trillion was federal revenue.

Using 2019, because it was the last normal year, without COVID relief as a factor.

Just to get a concept of how much 2 trillion is.

796 billion was the Medicare budget.
686 billion was the military budget.
61 billion for the department of transportation.
60 billion for the department of education.
30 billion for the department of energy.

All five of those things and still 400 billion dollars short.

Now comparing it to taxes.

230 billion came from corporate taxes.

Meaning a 400% tax increase on corporations wouldn’t be able to pay for 50% of UBI.

Next up, income taxes.

1.7 trillion in income tax revenue came in during 2019.

70% of that came from the top 10% of income tax earnings.

1.2 trillion total

Showing a 100% tax increase on the top 10%, assuming no revenue was lost doing it, only pays for 60% of UBI.

A 100% income tax increase for everyone also only pays for UBI.

After that, Andrew Yang in his UBI plan said they goal was to fund it from a 10% VAT tax.

Assuming that could pay for most of it, what does that do for the actual average household?

Just off averages, the average American man spends $40,300 a year on average.

A 10% sales tax would increase that by $4,300 a year or about a third of UBI.

VAT taxes are a little different than sales taxes, where they tax the entire distribution chain.

This could make UBI not very profitable for a lot of households under a VAT.

So is UBI a good idea?

I actually think so.

$1,000 a month to every man, woman & child, which would cost 3.5 trillion is possible, but it’d require a lot of sacrifices and expectations not every person just gets $12,000 extra a year.

Something to think about.