Focus on automating human labour as much as possible. Problems in the world all trace back to lack of resources. A rich man can afford to be 'nice to the environment', a poor man can't.
The below all are easier machine learning problems than self-driving cars, yet no big tech companies or national initiatives are focused on aggressively applying machine learning to them.
Likely a couple of billion dollars, a year, and a 100 people lab would 'solve' each specific problem.
1. Robot that cooks meals, and clean the dishes afterwards. That saves billions of hours daily.
2. Robotic self-cleaning toilets. Saves another billion hours daily.
3. Robots that can dig up dirt and build a house from that dirt.
4. An app that can teach anyone anything like a teacher would - literally - a talking avatar and cameras and voice output and machine learning powered dialogue.
5. Home manufacturing 'box' that can make 95% of anything that anyone typically wants (some arrangment of 3d printer/laser cutters/pcb placement/wood router machines etc, that can take plastics/wood/metal/electronic components and output a gadget/furniture etc)
The above 5 give the equivalent of a 'basic income' for everyone (if distributed to everyone, and assuming the finished gadget is about the size and complexity of an automobile).
Then the inputs/ouputs problem of energy/raw materials/waste needs to be provided.
Disregarding scientific advances like fusion power etc (which require more than 100 billion maybe, or not possible), a drone distrubution platform for getting the energy / matter (input/waste) handled.
To do this (as above, 100 people, a year, 1 billion dollars)
6. p2p aerial surveillance system for air traffic managment of millins of drones. Basically, a sky pointing camera gadget that analyzes and broadcasts what it sees and process. Millions/billions of these camera gadgets airdropped every few 100 meters .
7. a drone that can carry 100 kilos and drop ship materails/waste p2p using the p2p air traffic control. The drones are battery operated with range a coupel of kilometers.
8. a drone that can mid-air 'refuel' the above drones. Basically a flying battery that recharges that larger cargo drones.
Summary - 'gadgetize' every problem (it becomes a self contained mechano-electrical desktop/fridge size thing that a team of 100 people can rapidly iterate on) and throw machine learning at it at heavily as possible. Seek to eliminate human labour as fast as possible.
1 rich person saving his money so his 3 children never have to work is bad for the economy.
It's better the 1 rich person is forced to consume that in his lifetime. By doing so that money is redistributed back to the economy, and his 3 kids are also productive.
In scenario 1 only 1 out 4 people work. In scenario 2, 4 out of 4 people work.
Also - it's hypocritical for 'pull yourself by your bootstraps' for children born poor, and 'guaranteed basic income' for children born rich. That is more dehumanizing than not being allowed to pass off inheritance.
About 10 million cars are produced in the USA every year.
An RV/Trailer type thing is like a car - so quite easily you could imagine producing that many of these 'tiny houses' every year with car style factories.
About 600k people are homeless in the USA. That's about equal to the number of RV's produced every year.
So that solves 'physical' homelessness quite quickly if there was an effort to. (that disregards that some homeless choose to homeless out of mental illness etc)
'I like they way my lawn is and i don't like construction noises'
vs
'I can't get a job because it's too expensive to rent or buy where the jobs are, so i live in poverty'
(or i can't start family because i can only afford a room-share, or any number of other effects from NIMBYism)
Something is wrong with that argument. Welfare + Taxation = Basic Income.
Already we have it, by definition - it's an equation.
So some part of your calculation is wrong.
Likely you're over-inflating the amount paid out (it's not going to by 15/hr person) and undercounting payments (maybe disabilty/housing/local programs).
UBI given at equivalent levels to today's welfare would be strictly cheaper because of the reduced adminstration cost.
(this though is different from the question of whether payments should be higher and paid by increased taxation.
And off-topic, but taxation doesn't need to be increased - it can be payed by helicopter money, but actually not cause inflation, because of geographic mobility deflating that aspect of the economy).
Removing the needs assessment also removes the geographic location requirement, and that allows to deflate the land value inflation that is the real cause of inequality today.
The below all are easier machine learning problems than self-driving cars, yet no big tech companies or national initiatives are focused on aggressively applying machine learning to them.
Likely a couple of billion dollars, a year, and a 100 people lab would 'solve' each specific problem.
1. Robot that cooks meals, and clean the dishes afterwards. That saves billions of hours daily.
2. Robotic self-cleaning toilets. Saves another billion hours daily.
3. Robots that can dig up dirt and build a house from that dirt.
4. An app that can teach anyone anything like a teacher would - literally - a talking avatar and cameras and voice output and machine learning powered dialogue.
5. Home manufacturing 'box' that can make 95% of anything that anyone typically wants (some arrangment of 3d printer/laser cutters/pcb placement/wood router machines etc, that can take plastics/wood/metal/electronic components and output a gadget/furniture etc)
The above 5 give the equivalent of a 'basic income' for everyone (if distributed to everyone, and assuming the finished gadget is about the size and complexity of an automobile).
Then the inputs/ouputs problem of energy/raw materials/waste needs to be provided. Disregarding scientific advances like fusion power etc (which require more than 100 billion maybe, or not possible), a drone distrubution platform for getting the energy / matter (input/waste) handled. To do this (as above, 100 people, a year, 1 billion dollars)
6. p2p aerial surveillance system for air traffic managment of millins of drones. Basically, a sky pointing camera gadget that analyzes and broadcasts what it sees and process. Millions/billions of these camera gadgets airdropped every few 100 meters .
7. a drone that can carry 100 kilos and drop ship materails/waste p2p using the p2p air traffic control. The drones are battery operated with range a coupel of kilometers.
8. a drone that can mid-air 'refuel' the above drones. Basically a flying battery that recharges that larger cargo drones.
Summary - 'gadgetize' every problem (it becomes a self contained mechano-electrical desktop/fridge size thing that a team of 100 people can rapidly iterate on) and throw machine learning at it at heavily as possible. Seek to eliminate human labour as fast as possible.