The whole point of BI is to be a low-middle class income
Some advocates of BI may support that as the desired level, but few even of those who support it as a target level see it as the point.
A couple things that people generally cite as the point of BI:
(1) replacing means-tested social support programs with high bureaucratic oversight costs and perverse incentives (disincentives to outside income from means-testing) with a simpler system with lower bureaucratic oversight costs and fewer perverse incentives,
(2) increasing labor market mobility, mid-career educational opportunities, and entrepreneurial opportunities by making voluntary temporary lack of outside income less catastrophic of a cost.
(3) accommodating a transition to more automated society where market income will increasingly go to capital holders and labor will drop in value by redistributing gains that otherwise would become intensely concentrated.
People can dispute about the ideal target levels (both initial and long-term goals) for BI while supporting it, and I don't see many people seeing "low-middle class income" or $30K/yr as the point of BI, or even necessarily either the short or long-term target level. (I personally think its both too high as a near-term target and too low as a long-term target level.)
Comments
Some advocates of BI may support that as the desired level, but few even of those who support it as a target level see it as the point.
A couple things that people generally cite as the point of BI:
(1) replacing means-tested social support programs with high bureaucratic oversight costs and perverse incentives (disincentives to outside income from means-testing) with a simpler system with lower bureaucratic oversight costs and fewer perverse incentives,
(2) increasing labor market mobility, mid-career educational opportunities, and entrepreneurial opportunities by making voluntary temporary lack of outside income less catastrophic of a cost.
(3) accommodating a transition to more automated society where market income will increasingly go to capital holders and labor will drop in value by redistributing gains that otherwise would become intensely concentrated.
People can dispute about the ideal target levels (both initial and long-term goals) for BI while supporting it, and I don't see many people seeing "low-middle class income" or $30K/yr as the point of BI, or even necessarily either the short or long-term target level. (I personally think its both too high as a near-term target and too low as a long-term target level.)