When my tax dollars get redistributed to pay for some poor person's medical expenses, I am actually paying an incredibly modest amount for the enormous benefit of living in a society that isn't plagued with sick and infectious people.
I place a high value on living in a city where there aren't hoards of sick people dying from malnutrition because a simple injury has made them unemployable. And it is nice to know that the person making my latte isn't likely to be a carrier of tuberculosis or cholera.
Hi, I'm affluent and highly taxed, and redistribution is awesome.
Basic income is quite different from medical expenses, though.
The main problem of malnutrition is nowadays not that people wouldn't get food; it's that they get too much of it (particularly of the instantly gratifying type that has high energy content).
My point is a broader one made by example, that a society of people with a safety net is more desirable than one where the have-nots can only live off trash and sympathy.
(Though personally, I think the biggest reason to give a guaranteed income is because the money poor people receive is almost entirely spent in local shops and on rent and utilities. And it's spent on stuff that people want, whether we think it's a good decision or not. That makes it an efficient way for government to disperse money into the economy.)
I place a high value on living in a city where there aren't hoards of sick people dying from malnutrition because a simple injury has made them unemployable. And it is nice to know that the person making my latte isn't likely to be a carrier of tuberculosis or cholera.
Hi, I'm affluent and highly taxed, and redistribution is awesome.