Question for any UBI advocates

Someone once said…

• With a UBI, would i do more of what i like, or more of what I love? Duh. I'd drop to half-time at work and open more work for someone else, and consider more seriously the entrepreneurial possibilities of my hobbies.

This response came about from an earlier conversation involving others where one of them made the argument FOR UBI that it is good for capitalistic innovation. I hadn't heard that argument before, so I gave it some thought. It sounds at least partially true to my ear.

And raises a fear.

I've sorta done this. I didn't drop to half time, but I did accept underemployment for about 12 years while I pursued three distinct start-ups.

Here is the problem I fear. I'm looking for UBI advocates to allay it.

When we drop down like this, tax revenues of all sorts are decreased in the sense of an opportunity cost. I accepted my income loss in exchange for a possibly different, richer future, but in that choice, I reduced MY revenue by not earning at my potential. That means less income tax for federal and state coffers, property tax for local schools, and less sales tax from purchasing goods and services. Less purchasing period. Less, less, less. [Okay, my landlord probably off-loaded his property tax on me, but that doesn't change the fact that I was not a home owner until this period in my life was almost over. He could have been off-loading it on someone else while I bought a new house and contributed more.]

How many of us can safely do this (fraction of the working population) and still deliver sufficient tax revenue to be distributed as UBI so we don't break our promise to give people time to find the path they love?

[For any libertarians… I'm not suggesting this justifies taxation. I'm looking at the next step in their argument after the money has already been taken from us. This isn't an 'ends justify the means' argument.]