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So give people a one-time option when the program is introduced to choose either social security or the basic income. And of course for anyone more than a few years from retirement age, the basic income will be the obvious choice because it begins paying immediately, so social security will de facto phase itself out over time. But then you can trivially sell it as "no changes to social security."

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That would serve a somewhat different purpose than Social Security—a lower income throughout life rather than a higher income in retirement.

Regardless, though, it seems like there should be relatively elegant options for achieving both objectives with one system if we want to. Perhaps just increase the basic income after some age. (That sets off some warning bells in my head, though—it could be a step toward complexity and means testing.)

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