&gt; One place I find it useful to start is with the one empirical attempt to actually try basic income, the Canadian Mincome Experiment<p>Mincome was not an <i>unconditional</i> basic income, which is what the recent &quot;basic income&quot; efforts have been about. It was a means-tested social benefit program (though with perhaps <i>lighter</i> administrative overhead, since it was a strictly cash-benefit program with <i>only</i> outside income affecting grant eligibility, rather than the rather complex set of factors typical of social benefit programs.)<p>Most of the benefits claimed from UBI are tied pretty specifically to the <i>unconditional</i> aspect. OTOH, its results are interesting in that even with the reduction in benefits for outside income ($0.50 benefit reduction on each $1 of outside income), only teenagers and new mothers worked substantially less. This is interesting in considering UBI, since UBI has <i>less</i> reduction in incentive to work (no reduction in benefit for outside income).<p>&gt; The other direction is to look at today&#x27;s Social Security (basic income for the elderly)<p>Social Security isn&#x27;t even approximately a basic income -- benefits are determined by tax payments (ultimately, by income earned in jobs subject to Social Security tax.)