I didn't want to touch Georges post with a ten foot pole, because it would seem like i'm the shouty ranting dude.
But, my exact thoughts have been excellently disseminated here by 21Kid and Swervo and Jason.
Our greatest stumbling block is our collective ... inertia, i think that's the word, to implement change. Of course, I blame the Conservatives; if it were up to them we would still be living in the stone ages. I say this because they've literally resisted every. single. progressive. legislation since the beginning of time. Everything from abolishing slavery to child labour to the weekend, forty hour week, civil rights, Obamacare, suffragence etc was championed by liberals. And i'm proud to call myself liberal because of that. The fight remains though; LGBQT rights, reproductive rights, immigrants rights, even religious freedom are all under attack, by, you guessed it CONSERVATIVES. But, i digress (<<that's how I end up looking like the shouty ranting man shaking his fist at the sky.)
We (i hope) know that maintaining our military strength, increasing social spending, spending NOW on infrastructure and education and green tech, and improving the economy and balancing the budget, reducing the deficit, giving universal preK, (p)maternity leave, sick leave and even more vacation time are all good for the economy and NOT mutually exclusive. Even free/ subsidised university or trade school. We can do all those with our current budget, but our budget is directed by people who are elected to represent those who allow them to buy the necessary media exposure that gets them elected. So all our politicians are compromised (don't start billi. Even Bernie!) And we think, rather, we know, it's an immense task to change all that. So we don't bother.
But, if we applied a conscious effort, it could easily be done in one generation. Look at recycling. Yes, it's very simplistic to compare the machinations of the worlds largest economy to recycling but bear with me. Only the fringe left used to recycle. Then it entered the school system. Kids started telling their parents not to throw away the container but to recycle it. Incentives/ motivation were applied. Industries emerged from that, and now we recycle more that we ever have in modern history, and we even consider end of life in the design stage.
I'm not saying we wait for 30 years to get a conversation going about UBI. I'm saying right now we can all call our Congresscritters (in my case Congressman Brad Sherman) and start agitating for ALL THESE things. Not one. We have much greater freedom and ability to share ideas with all the electronic devices and social platforms we have today than at any time in the past.
There was a Democratic caucus in Iowa yesterday and more people showed up even with a snowstorm in effect, than had ever shown up before. That's where we start. At the local level.
I'll get off my soapbox now, but this is something I can go on at length about.
But, ideally, have a funding mechanism in place (unlike Bernies Medicare for All plan) or an idea of how to get it going. but it starts with participating. At more than just "rant online and go vote" levels.