and their kids don’t get to go to school anymore.

This part is actually a feature. You think desperate farmers are going to let crops rot in the field while their kids attend school? And that’s just family farms! Just wait until the inner city high schools start getting tapped for factory farms!

Negative income tax solves the “rich people getting 12k/yr they don’t ‘need’” issue. Beaurocracy/overhead has already been mentioned as another reason.

Not only is 88 considered auspicious in his native culture, he was also born in 1988. Normally, yes, be wary of the 88 dog whistle, but without further evidence it looks like a nothing-burger in this case.