UBI won't be real until there is a political will to relinquish control of poor people. The first step towards UBI is changing this culture of control. People don't even like school choice with vouchers, I doubt we're going to just give people large sums of money to be spent however they like with no strings attached. We spend about $15k/yr per public school student. Let's see how popular it is to cut a $15k check to each family per kid, you can spend that money however you like. It doesn't even have to be spent on education. Convert public housing to a check with no strings attached. No more food stamps or WIC cards either, just a check. Unfortunately we just don't live in that kind of culture.