Ethics of a universal basic income

I recently had a conversation with a friend I have known for a while about the ethics of UBI. My friend is very conservative and I am very liberal. I am an undergraduate working on my BA in philosophy. My friend and I have gotten into arguments about issues like universal healthcare, free college, and general welfare for the poor. I tend to support all of these policies and he tends to be against them. He makes the argument that everyone should just get a job and work their ass off. That everyone gets themselves into their own situation. So if you are poor, it is your own fault. And I try to argue that some people don't have a chance because they were born into unfortunate circumstances. And we just sort of agree to disagree. <br><br>But this time, we started to have the same argument, until he said, "I would agree to a universal basic income. I would be ok with everyone having a minimum standard of living." I was very surprised. I had never heard of this argument being made before. The ethics behind it makes sense. It would be much cheaper than giving out welfare. It would help to prevent poverty and homelessness. And if setup correctly, it would be very hard to exploit the system. And yet, the first thing that came to mind was, "This is communism." But then I realized that this wasn't communism. You earn your own money. But the government also provides a basic standard of living for everyone. And I am now inclined to agree with this stance. Everyone should have a standard of living that provides for their basic needs. And if they want more than the basic standard of living, then it is their responsibility to work and earn more. <br><br>Any thoughts?