The flaw in any scheme for universal basic income

The public sphere has been a realm of echoing noise, lately, but through it all, readers may have picked up from time to time the notion of a universal basic income — that is, some system or other that guarantees every American a baseline level of money that allows them to subsist, if not live comfortably.  Even on the political right, some folks are willing to entertain the idea as a reimagining of the welfare state, but that's not the angle that leads me to bring the question up,

The public sphere has been a realm of echoing noise, lately, but through it all, readers may have picked up from time to time the notion of a universal basic income — that is, some system or other that guarantees every American a baseline level of money that allows them to subsist, if not live comfortably.  Even on the political right, some folks are willing to entertain the idea as a reimagining of the welfare state, but that's not the angle that leads me to bring the question up, just now. As…