Who Pays For Basic Income?

[Okeefenokee]

You raise taxes on farming to limit the size of farms to a very small acreage. Productivity drops. Food prices rise. People forced out of the labor market have only farming to transition to, and the rise in food prices keeps them in the middle class. Millions of Americans can then make a living on small family farms, and though food prices are high, everything else is dirt cheap because of automation.

It's just a spit ball idea off the top of my head, but if you're gonna sacrifice one area to keep it profitable, so that all those displaced from the job market can still make a living, make it farming.

Let the robots take over everything, and drive the cost of everything to the ground. Keep one area still human dominated, and get the added effect of it staying local. You get a salt of the earth society that rises with the sun, and remembers the value of hard work, while also getting the benefits of automation.