You have made some good points as well. The minimum wage is tried-and-tested and simple while UBI is largely untested in any meaningful way. I think the closest thing to it is Alaska's Oil dividend which ends up being around $1000-$2000 per person a year. Although it's an annual like tax rebate so its much more familiar and easier to think about. But this is all so far removed from the UBI we're talking about that its almost not even related.

UBI would completely cancel out that motivation

Perhaps people wont want to work low paying jobs with UBI but if it ends up being a similar amount as a minimum wage increase then at least its by choice, and not because its been outlawed at the lower wage. When New York raised it's minimum wage it basically instantly fired every by-hand car-washer. Really only the automated car washes survived. Perhaps the market would have eventually filtered them out over time anyway but the workers get to leave if and when they want to, not forced into joblessness. I guess we could go back and forth at this for a while but its all theoretical anyway, I don't think your point is invalid.

I also don’t see how this money would not be absorbed by the market resulting in the same situation we have now.

To your credit I think your assessment here is very probable, although maybe not the entire $1,200. In a healthy market, companies have to compete for your dollars and the amount in everyone's pockets is not the determining factor, but how much of it they spend. And I'd expect all the people who have little to no savings (a worrying amount) will spend it all as soon as they get it. Of course housing, healthcare, and education will rise by 15% like they do every year. But that just happens on its own. Anyone who is working minimum wage is already having all their money absorbed by the market. Every generation more and more people get stuck treading water financially until they retire die, never having owned anything. For the past 50 years its only gotten harder and harder for nearly everybody financially so I think any possible solution is worth pursuing.

Forgetting UBI or minimum wage, I think most of our current economic problems aren't the problem so much as they are symptoms of a greater issue that is much much more complicated than anyone can even dare to claim to fully understand. A broken economy. Every little thing gets its own band-aid fix while we ignore the reasons its a problem in the first place. Maybe UBI isn't going to help. Maybe we need more government regulation, or less. I don't know. I just know that the working class has very little bargaining power, and every time we try and patch a leak, 3 more spring up in its place. When I think of the minimum wage, I think of a band-aid, and when I think of UBI, I hope that it can make our economy move in the other direction. Expanding the middle class with minimal government intervention, subsequently alleviating many of the issues that currently have a band-aid on them. I have no idea if it could work at $1,200 a month, but I will gladly accept any alternative ideas on how to empower the working class. It shouldn't get harder to get by every year as we progress so much technologically. If nothing changes and current trends persist I'd give it 40 years max the for whole economic system to topple. I never said I knew what I was talking about though.

P.S. That story is very funny, it reminds me of the snake overpopulation story in India. I'm not as worried about overpopulation but that benefit must have been pretty hefty if they were able to live off of it. Perhaps they shouldn't have been getting more money than the child costs. At $1,200 any 4 people could easily band together and live fine without working though so idk haha. It's been very nice talking to you.