That is a common misconception. No serious UBI proposal would be that expensive.
UBI is not about free cash to everyone. It's about reforming basic welfare benefits and income taxes to prevent welfare traps.
The "U" part is about making basic welfare benefits automatic and unconditional. You don't have to apply for them, and you don't have to do anything specific to qualify for them.
The "B" part is fundamentally a tax reform. Everyone gets the automatic welfare benefit, but some common tax credits and deductions would disappear, as would the lowest tax brackets. In the US, the 24% federal income tax bracket might start at $0.
For low-income people, the biggest change would be lower effective marginal tax rate, as they would only pay actual taxes. For medium incomes and above, the main change would be that people would have to calculate their taxes in a different way.
The necessity of a tax reform also means that testing UBI properly is difficult. A $1000/month benefit with current income taxes would be more money for low-income workers than an actual $1000/month UBI.
With effects this small UBI is clearly not something worth doing.
The 3.6T are for everyone getting an additional 1k a month. Which is exactly what the study tested and which had negligible effects. If the effects of 3.6T free money are negligible, then spending less on the same thing is obviously more negligible.
UBI is not about free cash to everyone. It's about reforming basic welfare benefits and income taxes to prevent welfare traps.
The "U" part is about making basic welfare benefits automatic and unconditional. You don't have to apply for them, and you don't have to do anything specific to qualify for them.
The "B" part is fundamentally a tax reform. Everyone gets the automatic welfare benefit, but some common tax credits and deductions would disappear, as would the lowest tax brackets. In the US, the 24% federal income tax bracket might start at $0.
For low-income people, the biggest change would be lower effective marginal tax rate, as they would only pay actual taxes. For medium incomes and above, the main change would be that people would have to calculate their taxes in a different way.
The necessity of a tax reform also means that testing UBI properly is difficult. A $1000/month benefit with current income taxes would be more money for low-income workers than an actual $1000/month UBI.