 Now let me ask you this because in a way you're I mean you're calling it the freedom dividend so that gives individuals hypothetically more freedom but here's what I worry about and I'm not saying that this is something that you're proposing but this is what I'm worried about post-Yang presidency we pass UBI you served two terms you know you've been president now but we have a republican administration and what they tend to do is they pitch the idea of freedom but oftentimes it's a Trojan horse to privatize social safety net programs so let me give you an example so republicans often talk about a voucher they like to do that they talk about voucher voucher programs for healthcare for education now what is this in actuality it's a ploy to privatize it because if you devalue the utility of these types of social safety net programs what happens you open the door to privatization because that undermines public support and so here's what I worry about if we get UBI and that kind of becomes the standard it replaces food stamps for the most part how can we how can we protect what exists for you know the social safety net alongside UBI if people still opt for welfare instead of UBI simply because it benefits them more like for example my dad it just benefits him to get you know the 1300 from social security so how can we protect social security if it's devalued because of UBI you know that this is a very legitimate and important consideration and one of the things that I said to to folks is that on the bright side because people you know very understandably it's like look conservatives love to try and like you know chop away at these programs and like might having the freedom dividend make it easier for them to do so and then there is a contrary point of view that that this freedom dividend could itself become sort of like a tree trunk where you can't chop it because everyone's getting it and then you're like okay like well it's sort of hard to to attack it and the Alaska example is instructive where you know they've had it for almost 40 years and like it's so popular like you can't touch it and so there is like a trade off first as you I think can tell I would be the last person who wants to take away social programs for anyone and certainly like you're right that it's possible that the president after me is then like ooh like let me see if I can you know right because I mean you can't be president forever so that's what I'm worried about is future administrations yeah it's a legitimate concern you know that the thing that I'd suggest it to people is that you have to take a look at our current situation which is that I'm not sure how hatchet proof our existing programs are right now like the the conservatives are already successfully pulled back benefits in various in various states in various environments that's true and so it's not like right now in the absence of the freedom dividend dividend these programs are bulletproof a lot of people are actually very concerned about these programs future and and the the fear I have if you look into you know what I think is coming with this wave of automation is that the thing that's driving the hatcheting away of various welfare programs is this mindset of scarcity that is predominant and unfortunately it's getting higher and stronger as financial insecurity sweeps the country more or less where then if you have people who are struggling themselves economically it's easier for conservative leaders to look at them and say hey guys what's that yeah we don't have enough money to go around you know we have to do we have to get rid of these welfare programs for the people and then the people who are curious they are like yeah that's right that's why like things aren't good is because we're wasting money on these like other people and and that mindset is getting stronger and deeper and nastier all the time because we're pushing more and more americans and communities into economic distress right so in the freedom dividend world where people don't feel like they're very future and their their kids futures are like in question and then you know you get the economic boot off of people's throat and they have a greater sense of abundance and future orientation and maybe even like you know lower stress levels then it's going to be harder to gin them up to attack and hatchet welfare programs because if you go and say hey these people are getting this stuff then they'll be like who cares you know like my life is fine my kids are fine i'm getting stuff they're getting some more stuff like maybe that's fine too maybe they need it maybe you know their circumstances are different than mine so if you have yeah because this is what i this is what concerns me the most and i'm supportive of ubi to be clear so if you are also kind of concerned with the same thing of future administrations getting in and you know using ubi to pitch cutting other social safety net programs why not redesign your current ubi proposal to make it supplement existing social safety net programs because i think that that would make everything uh all of these problems that i'm i'm bringing up kind of go away because if it truly is universal everybody gets it nobody's gonna want to get rid of in congress is gonna want to get rid of ubi if it's so popular and additionally if it supplements our existing social safety net programs then they can no longer use ubi republicans can no longer say well you have ubi so you don't need food need food stamps let's cut that so why not supplement what already exists why make it either or you know i i think part of it is that the way that the freedom dividend is positioned is that we're saying the right of citizenship now as an american is that you should be getting a floor of a thousand dollars a month um and that principle then um i believe can make it very very popular uh very quickly um and so if that's the principle then you go to someone and say hey you know you may already be receiving benefits of a certain kind we're guaranteeing you a floor of a thousand dollars a month doesn't matter what your situation is um and so like in an ideal world like if you gave me again a choice it's like hey pass ubi on top of the existing social safety nets like you know i would i would take that um but i believe that it's going to be more uh achievable uh and again we'd be talking about the alleviation of gross poverty uh in our time if we have it as like a blanket floor across the board so but it's but you you know like the question is a really interesting one like though the way that i've uh the way that i understood even the original basic income proposals it was around this universal floor for everyone and that's the the approach that we've chosen