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"Cutting everyone a check for $1,000 a month, which most people in that room would consider too little to live on, would cost almost $3 trillion."

...What? I work a low skill service sector job and I only make $850 per month after all the taxes and deductions are taken out and I do fine as far as shelter and food are concerned. $1000 a month is plenty if it's after taxes and deductions.

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I think the authors point was that the people in that room consider $1000 a month to not be a livable wage. Therefore, the inference is that those people would want to see more than $1000 a month, which would be even more costly. Perhaps the author just picked $1000 for ease of mathematical illustration.

I certainly agree - I've been in situations where I've made about $850 per month and did especially fine if I pooled my money among others.

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