Milton Friedman, a conservative economist from the 20th century, advocated for a negative income tax that worked similarly to a normal income tax. If you made $0 a year and filed a tax return, the government would give you let's say the standard deduction (currently ~13k). As you increased your income, for every two dollars (could make this 3 or 4 too), you'd lose $1 of that negative income tax, so it would never be bad to make more money.

For a 2:1 ratio you'd have to make 26k+ to get no money. Some number examples:

Normal income + negative income tax = total income

$0 + $13,000 = $13,000

$6,500 + $9,750 = $16,250

$13,000 + $6,500 = $19,500

$19,500 + $3,250 = $22,750

$26,000 + $0 = $26,000

Making more money is never bad, and it still gets money to people who need it most with essentially no bureaucratic overhead.

I'm a socialist who disagrees with the vast majority of the shit Milton Friedman spewed, but negative income tax wasn't a terrible idea, I might even go as far to say it's good (as long as the amount is high enough).