How much would it cost to provide basic income to all US Citizens?

Originally posted on Quora May 21, 2023

It would be an untenable mess of overgeneralizations and baseless assumptions about subsistence income just like the “living wage” proposals. My unit is $300–400 less than the units across the street, which means the cost of living varies not just among the several states, or from one zip code to another but even within the same county, town, city or within the same neighborhood. What makes your income basic other than you asserting it so and how would it meet the millions of variations in cost of living; show me an instrument as blunt as a legislature that can hit millions of moving targets at once. If I have a child my cost of living goes up substantially. Does that entitle me to more than my childless neighbor? If I drink my liver into oblivion my cost of living goes up. Am I entitled to more than my teetotaler neighbor? If I rent a two bedroom with a friend or spouse who abruptly moves out do I suddenly become entitled to a higher basic income than my single neighbor in a 1-bedroom unit? Any number of life circumstances could lead to a higher cost of living even if we have the same income and live in the same place.