My perception of ‘the public’ is that they don’t give a rodent’s buttocks about those in need.
That statement above is written in the real conditional tense and, and REALLY haven’t seen any inclination toward this except from one particular presidential candidate in the most recent election. Given that the party most likely to support any UBI income didn’t choose that candidate as their nominee I don’t see any justification for your If/Will phrasing. Maybe… ‘I THINK that others SHOULD…’ is more approriate.
I read about UBI being tried long before Yang ran for office. From Wikipedia:
Antiquity
See also: Cura Annonae
In a 46 BC triumph, Roman general and dictator Julius Caesar gave each common Roman citizen 100 denarii. Following his assassination in 44 BC, Caesar's will left 300 sestertii (or 75 denarii) to each citizen.[11]
Trajan, emperor of Rome from 98–117 AD, personally gave 650 denarii (equivalent to perhaps US$260 in 2002) to all common Roman citizens who applied.[12]
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Late 20th century
In his 1964 State of the Union address, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson introduced legislation to fight the "war on poverty". Johnson believed in expanding the federal government's roles in education and health care as poverty reduction strategies. In this political climate, the idea of a guaranteed income for every American also took root. Notably, a document, signed by 1200 economists, called for a guaranteed income for every American. Six ambitious basic income experiments started up on the related concept of negative income tax. Succeeding President Richard Nixon explained its purpose as "to provide both a safety net for the poor and a financial incentive for welfare recipients to work."[19] Congress eventually approved a guaranteed minimum income for the elderly and the disabled.[19]
In the mid-1970s the main competitor to basic income and negative income tax, the Earned income tax credit (EITC), or its advocates, won over enough legislators for the US Congress to pass laws on that policy.
More:
en.wikipedia.org
