Also , how would it not reduce bureaucracy ? Because it will simply turn into a UBI with so called need based assistance piled on top of it . Not necessarily disagreeing with you , as very few trials of BI have been done , but what exactly are your arguments against BI as you describe ? It won ' t replace anything . My point is that if the US , for example , replaced every welfare program in the country with a UBI tomorrow , in a generation we would have a UBI with very similar layers of welfare programs we have today because the same people would still require more assistance . There would still be people crying about how we don ' t do enough for the poor and we need another program to help them . <| sep |> Ah yes . You are mentioning the infamous schrodingers firehydrant . A law that states that there is both a firehydrant in a pile of leaves , and no firehydrant in a pile of leaves until the pile of leaves is jumped on .