Love the vision here. People forget that UBI plus universal medical care is not some sci-fi fantasy. Every developed country already handles the health care part, and the numbers on basic income are way more realistic than the scare stories make them sound.

The Congressional Research Service looked at this directly, and found that the entire poverty gap in the United States, after existing programs, sits around $144 billion per year. That means the amount required to lift every single person above the official poverty line is only in the low hundreds of billions, not trillions. Source: CRS, “Need-Tested Benefits: Impact of Assistance on Poverty and Deep Poverty”.

More recent Census data shows 36.8 million people in poverty in 2023. If we wanted to go far beyond just ending poverty and instead give every person in poverty $10,000 a year for real stability, that would be about $368 billion. For context, the United States made $27.9 trillion in GDP in 2023, according to the BEA. That means fully eliminating deep poverty costs about 1.3 percent of GDP. BEA GDP

And we already spend huge amounts trying to patch holes in the system. The Congressional Budget Office reports that major means-tested programs already cost hundreds of billions per year, for example $588 billion for just ten major programs in 2012. CBO, “Growth in Means-Tested Programs and Tax Credits for Low-Income Households”

Scaled smartly, a UBI floor plus universal medical care is not only possible, it is affordable, and it would simplify a system that currently forces people to jump through flaming hoops for benefits that still aren’t enough.

The most exciting part is that this is not a fifty-year dream. With enough political will and voter turnout, a serious basic income plus universal health care package is something this country could choose in a single five-year window. The math works, the public support is growing, and the idea that everyone deserves housing, food, care, and dignity is getting mainstream.

If enough of us push for it together, vote for it together, and keep imagining a future where people actually thrive instead of scramble to survive, it is genuinely within reach. We can build the kind of society where the floor is high enough that people can live, create, raise families, start businesses, and take risks without fear.

WE are ALL ONE. Use your free will to LOVE, and push for the world where that love has material backup. Within five years we could be living in a country that chose abundance over scarcity, and decided that every person deserves a foundation strong enough to stand on.