There are lots of objections to UBI, the most serious ones, I believe, start from the assumption that transfer payments are zero-sum things, that for me to get $1,000 per month, some person of group in the aggregate must forgo $1,000 a month. A proper tactical approach to UBI, therefore, begins with embedding a plus-sum mentality in the electorate, and understanding, for example, that a UBI creates demand, and demand creates jobs and profits.

It all comes down to excess capacity available for American consumption. If the world, including our own people, are willing and able to produce goods and services for our people to buy, then printing money for them to buy those things will be a win-win proposition. Once we get over this zero-sum hurdle, so that “How will we pay for it?” stops being a question, we won’t have to provide the kind of convoluted and counter-intuitive answers that MMT supplies.