I am stating the obvious: that the government is NOT going to set UBI to an amount people can live on permanently.
Your opinions aren't facts. The government already makes benefits and pensions broadly livable (well just about, opinions vary as to what livable is). UBI won't be a great income, but what evidence do you have that UBI will be WORSE than they money they're already handing out.
I'm literally stating the obvious.
No you're sating opinions that you think are obvious facts but aren't actually facts.
You think that if you reduce people's ability to live on UBI alone, they're just going to say "Welp, time to go bankrupt and die"? Please do tell, how does reducing UBI not cause more people to seek work?
Same way it works with benefits, really. We as a society don't generally like people starving in the streets so we don't have a complete starvation level welfare state.
People who work will consider it a subsidy on those that don't,
People bleat endlessly about welfare queens too. I do understand that people are thick and inefficient and that may be enough to sink UBI. I work. I support having a welfare state. UBI also looks interesting to me.
and many would argue they'd be better off if their taxes were reduced and those lazy scrounging (etc) people who rely on UBI were forced to work or get higher paid jobs.
Many would, may wouldn't. That's why we have elections.
I'm glad you accept that it's not a panacea and that some means-tested/situational benefits will still be required, because most promoters of UBI seem to refuse to accept that.
That sounds like a straw man. I don't think I've ever discussed UBI with someone that extreme.
the question here is what happens when inevitably, for the reasons I explained,
You explained the reasons and having read the reasons, I disagree. They apply equally to the existing benefits and yet that broadly has not happened.
and just noping me to death
I mean you're just asserting it will with arguments that don't hold up to scrutiny, so.....
Because there are no positive forces to keep UBI high.
Why do pensions exist? What positive forces keep the triple lock in the UK?
If there's something we've learned about humanity and the government and so on, it's that people prefer "low taxes" to safety nets,
That is also not true. Maybe in your country.
UBI Is unsustainable because there are more forces to keep it too low than to be high enough to be a viable replacement for benefits, which in turn means UBI means the end of the safety nets and protections against unemployment.
Those forces apply equally to existing safety nets. You haven't explained how they don't.