Basic income is given to people who earn less then that. You'll buy food and shelter with it (no laptops !?), but it is tough to survive with it.
It might be more efficient if it was backed up with some kind of coaching to help people learn how to manage their income and life because this is like giving fish instead of learning to fish (though that's the purpose of school). But sometime you really need fish and have no time to learn, or some people are just too dumb to learn anything.
It has a huge cost, but it has to be balanced by the benefit of criminality and insecurity reduction. Without it these people would have to steal, swindle or deal drugs and this is very likely to have a much higher cost.
The wikipedia article says that basic income is give to all regardless of wealth. That's one of the points - it removes the huge costs involved in administrating a system that has to establish and analyse the wealth of all members of the community.
It might be more efficient if it was backed up with some kind of coaching to help people learn how to manage their income and life because this is like giving fish instead of learning to fish (though that's the purpose of school). But sometime you really need fish and have no time to learn, or some people are just too dumb to learn anything.
It has a huge cost, but it has to be balanced by the benefit of criminality and insecurity reduction. Without it these people would have to steal, swindle or deal drugs and this is very likely to have a much higher cost.