This is a very good read and everyone who has participated thus far should be congratulated for not losing their brains yet to the zombies. All jokes aside, I would like to tackle this question on a slightly different ground, seeing as nearly everyone thinks that basic income, especially government run, is not a good idea. I tend to agree with you on this.

This does leave me troubled, because there are many problems that need to be solved that we don't wan't any government to touch... or we just don't want governments at all. Either way, we have people without homes, people with disabilities, people with severe mental health problems, people with out families that need assistance... the list goes on.

I love the idea of a voluntary system. Where the benevolent people help those in need and no tax extortion of any kind is required. People are smart and willing to do their best for society. We can form boards and community leagues that can focus on making sure that everyone is fed, sheltered and well taken care of. If these boards run out of money, they can merely sound the alarm and many people will be happy to meet the call to ensure that everyone in the community is taken care of.

It is very utopian and wonderful to contemplate, in theory. In practice, all sorts of problems could come up. Do people care about others? Would greed be an issue? Would corruption overtake these boards?

This is kind of an aside, but it is relevant to the taxation vs. voluntary argument. I drove a stretch of road in the maritimes that was a privately owned highway. No government involvement in maintaining the road was required. Users of the road paid a toll and the road was taken care of by the owner of the road funded by the users. This is a great model as many people taxed to care for roads do not even own a car, and taxing them to take care of the roads doesn't really seem fair. This user fee based stretch of road would eliminate unjust taxation and charge the users of the road for its upkeep. It sounds great in theory. In practice, the road was a deathtrap because the owners of the road wanted to profit off of the users and as such, many people avoided it because it would snow and ice up and no ploughs would maintain the road. The government was doing a better job with their roads but were blanket taxing everyone in order to maintain the road.

In the above case, I would prefer the user fee based model, assuming a just operation and proper management. The problem was in the owners neglecting the safety of the road in favour of profit. Greed. It can be a problem.

I am in favour of a voluntary approach to wealth distribution, but there are many problems with that, which are quite obvious. I don't know if individuals are ready to take on responsibility for the good of more than themselves. I would love to see it. I would love to see taxation as a thing of the past. In order for that to happen people would need to take matters into their own hands and not create a disaster of it. I have faith in humanity... but I am not sure if I have that much. That being said, a government operated (where active citizens monitor their activities) might work out better than the best (in my opinion, voluntary) solution.