The idea is that the taxes scale, so for the middle class the tax is negligible. You get $10k, and your taxes are increased by $12k if you're making less than $100k.
As for teenagers sitting in their parents basement - The thought is that $10k lets them live and do anything they please instead of being tied to a shitty job or their parents basement. In theory they will choose to contribute to society in some way and not just play video games all day.
But that is what we need to test - Will people choose to play video games and watch TV all day, or choose something fulfilling and 'productive.' Then we have to redefine productive, some other comments in this thread speak about that.
As for teenagers sitting in their parents basement - The thought is that $10k lets them live and do anything they please instead of being tied to a shitty job or their parents basement. In theory they will choose to contribute to society in some way and not just play video games all day.
But that is what we need to test - Will people choose to play video games and watch TV all day, or choose something fulfilling and 'productive.' Then we have to redefine productive, some other comments in this thread speak about that.