Just as a completely rough order-of-magnitude approximation meant to spark discussion of the viability of a universal basic income in the United States:<p>Wikipedia estimates the total net worth of US households and non-profits at $55 trillion in 2009. Assuming a 1% annual wealth tax on all assets (Norway currently has a 1.1% annual wealth tax, albeit only on fortunes greater than $120,000), we get annual proceeds of  $550 billion. Social Security pays out $813 billion in total annual benefits.<p>Kill off Social Security entirely and institute the tax. Divided by USA&#x27;s 320 million population, we end up with ~$4250  per citizen per year. So with an annual minimum wage of $15,000, on average no more than every third citizen would have to depend entirely on the basic income. Also, tax revenues or net worth would also not have to decrease once the program was started.<p>You can tweak the assumptions, add other possible sources of income to the system, approximate the economic surplus of the people who are now supported by UBI, question the viability of living on minimum wage, estimate the economic surplus of getting rid of means-tested welfare programs etc. Plenty of room for discussion!<p>Sources:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Wealth_in_the_United_States" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Wealth_in_the_United_States</a><p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;poverty.ucdavis.edu&#x2F;faq&#x2F;what-are-annual-earnings-full-time-minimum-wage-worker" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;poverty.ucdavis.edu&#x2F;faq&#x2F;what-are-annual-earnings-full...</a><p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.heritage.org&#x2F;research&#x2F;reports&#x2F;2014&#x2F;12&#x2F;federal-spending-by-the-numbers-2014" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.heritage.org&#x2F;research&#x2F;reports&#x2F;2014&#x2F;12&#x2F;federal-spe...</a>