There is more than enough food for everyone, and everyone needs it to live. Food stamps supply permission to eat for some people, and food banks supply permission to others. We also waste about half of what we produce.

Saying we can't afford even a small UBI is utter nonsense.

What does it mean to say we can't afford to feed everyone? It means that we would have to shift resources from elsewhere to produce more food, but again, there is no food scarcity. There is only a scarcity of legal permission to eat the food we produce, while 40% goes to waste.

So Merry Christmas, and please consider that the right thing to do is to just provide permission for everyone to eat the food we produce. Then all income from employment would be for everything other than food.

No job should never mean no food when there is plenty of food.

It's also absurd to think that everyone having enough money for food would ever lead to inflation, because again, there's plenty of food. Demand will not outstrip its supply in the US. It's also pretty messed up to withhold food from people out of fear yours will cost >2% more.

If you don't want everyone to have permission slips to eat in the belief that granting that permission would lead to your food costing a bit more and people working a bit less, you should really consider what that means, and how different things could be.