One of the things Americans fail to understand, because nobody tells them and politicians don't want them to know, is that the government can spend $10k on someone or something now (e.g., UBI, healthcare) and save itself hundreds of thousands in the future -- or even "profit" in the sense of higher productivity and tax revenues.

Instead, we live in a country that insists on spending $150 million on cops to prevent $104,000 in lost subway fares.