"Why not solve both problems by simply eliminating income tax on lower income brackets instead? This is cheaper, easier to implement and less politically contentious"
That doesn't work. It is already essentially done in the US and hasn't solved the significant poverty problems in the US. Quite the contrary it has likely made the situation worse. Studies show that when the poor don't pay taxes they end up being vilified by the middle class and viewed as leeches. "Why do we pay for free stuff for them", would be the rebuttal. This excepting the poor of taxes erodes the support for welfare programs, and tax cuts on a low salary can't make up for cuts to programs such as public education, subsidized health care etc.
Studies show the best way to reduce poverty is through broad non-means tested programs everybody gets whether they are rich or poor, because that allows the whole population to keep its support behind these programs as everybody benefits from them. It also allows resourceful people to demand quality and improvements. Examples of this is e.g. public education. Whenever education is segregated into public education for the poor and private for the well off, then public education is almost always shitty quality. When the middle class and rich also send their kids to public school, it tends to be of high quality as the powerful will pressure government to keep quality high.
There are some great examples of this from when black and white schools got desegregated. As soon as white kids got sent to black schools, those schools saw dramatic quality improvement as there became much stronger political pressure from resourceful people to improve those schools.
"I suspect many people support basic income because they fundamentally believe in a world where you shouldn't have to work to make a living"
I suspect that is what people against basic income usually suspect about advocates. You engage in a rather human logical fallacy. Assuming people supporting something primarily do it for their own benefit. I support legalized prostitution and drugs. Yet I am not a prostitute, john or drug addict. Wow how can I hold that position then? Hint I care about practical solutions to real problems in society.
I don't really believe in universal basic income but not for the reasons you state. I don't think the problem is that people wouldn't work, but rather that it could never be high enough to replace all the things a welfare system now takes care of.
That doesn't work. It is already essentially done in the US and hasn't solved the significant poverty problems in the US. Quite the contrary it has likely made the situation worse. Studies show that when the poor don't pay taxes they end up being vilified by the middle class and viewed as leeches. "Why do we pay for free stuff for them", would be the rebuttal. This excepting the poor of taxes erodes the support for welfare programs, and tax cuts on a low salary can't make up for cuts to programs such as public education, subsidized health care etc.
Studies show the best way to reduce poverty is through broad non-means tested programs everybody gets whether they are rich or poor, because that allows the whole population to keep its support behind these programs as everybody benefits from them. It also allows resourceful people to demand quality and improvements. Examples of this is e.g. public education. Whenever education is segregated into public education for the poor and private for the well off, then public education is almost always shitty quality. When the middle class and rich also send their kids to public school, it tends to be of high quality as the powerful will pressure government to keep quality high.
There are some great examples of this from when black and white schools got desegregated. As soon as white kids got sent to black schools, those schools saw dramatic quality improvement as there became much stronger political pressure from resourceful people to improve those schools.
"I suspect many people support basic income because they fundamentally believe in a world where you shouldn't have to work to make a living"
I suspect that is what people against basic income usually suspect about advocates. You engage in a rather human logical fallacy. Assuming people supporting something primarily do it for their own benefit. I support legalized prostitution and drugs. Yet I am not a prostitute, john or drug addict. Wow how can I hold that position then? Hint I care about practical solutions to real problems in society.
I don't really believe in universal basic income but not for the reasons you state. I don't think the problem is that people wouldn't work, but rather that it could never be high enough to replace all the things a welfare system now takes care of.