Tom Pogson
@basicbc.bsky.social
Musician, writer, and Basic Income Victoria BC Guy who knows the abundance of a better world IS possible. https://linktr.ee/Basicbc
The August BIENs Piloters Newsletter is out! Ahead of the BIEN conference, we have a lot packed into this month's edition, featuring pilots in Uganda, research news, a lottery and a docuseries, all on the basic income movement. Read and subscribe for more. zurl.co/CE30r
BREAKING: Abdul El-Sayed has officially won the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Michigan
"Robots will gain sentience" yeah, and get right fed up too.
It's what commentators get wrong...UBI isn't where you end up after robots arrive and it doesn't cancel meaning. It's where you start off from and we could have done it back when Bertrand Russell suggested it in 1917. It doesn't end meaning. It enhances it through freeing up possibilities.
THIS. Basic income is starting point income. It raises the floor. You decide what's next.
Rachel Klein@racheleklein.bsky.social · 4d agoALL I ask is that people who reject Universal Basic Income out of hand because “People need to work” interrogate WHY they believe this instead of assuming it as a starting point.
Full article: Inequality in the Digital Economy: The Case for a Universal Basic Income www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Inequality in the Digital Economy: The Case for a Universal Basic Income
Published in Ethics and Social Welfare (Ahead of Print, 2026)
tandfonline.com
"The decade’s deepest human-development insight was simple. Money can change more than purchasing power. It can change time, liquidity, bargaining, privacy, mobility, the ability to repair a roof before the rain, and the freedom to make an ordinary purchase without asking permission." #UBI
Basic Income Earth Network@basicincomeearth.bsky.social · 2d agoA new article from BIEN looks back at the decade when UBI moved from theory to real-world pilots. Focusing on the period 2006–2016, the article traces how pilots in Namibia, India, Brazil, Switzerland, and South Korea transformed the policy. zurl.co/qE0cw
I read the full text on Pandora Street (eastern side so as not to disturb anyone) which is now our main homeless community, much of which is now fenced off to prevent them from encampment. I did this because sweeps are the grandchildren of enclosure and colonization.
Tom Pogson @basicbc.bsky.social · 2d agoI will extract clips from this later but for now, here is Agrarian Justice, written by Thomas Paine, read by me on the east side of Pandora Street in Victoria BC. youtu.be/DeoZ07u3_zY?...
I will extract clips from this later but for now, here is Agrarian Justice, written by Thomas Paine, read by me on the east side of Pandora Street in Victoria BC. youtu.be/DeoZ07u3_zY?...
Agrarian Justice by Thomas Paine, Pandora Street, Victoria B.C.
YouTube video by Tom Pogson
youtu.be
Thank you! Someone just dropped $25 on Basic Income Action and didn't even want their name on it. $177 raised. This is what a movement looks like when people just show up. If 27 people give $10, we hit our $450 goal and get our email server live!! Who's next: basicincomeaction.org/campaigns/6a...
Email Server • Basic Income Action
Help Reconnect the Movement
basicincomeaction.org
Great new article by Scott here and there's so much to write about but one thing that resonated for me. Namely, that we will one day look back in shame and frustration that we didn't create a floor beneath us all that we could stand on. That so many people suffered needlessly...
Scott Santens@scottsantens.com · 3d agoI just read Sapolsky's book Determined and it kind of blew my mind. There's a biological argument for unconditional basic income to be made based on how our decisions depend on factors beyond our control. If free will is an illusion, then we should make sure to end poverty and reduce chronic stress.
Basic income is a floor to stand on, but also a springboard, whether that's starting a business, making art, or caring for family, without having to prove your worth through production first.
Listened to Elon's Economist interview yesterday, and it just keeps getting more blatant... If you're entire framing of UBI is from guys like him, you've gone way off course. basicbc.wordpress.com/2026/08/01/o...
On Elon Musk and “Universal High Income”
I need to start this off with a quote, because there is a name involved on this subject that people need to know. His name was Gerald Huff. The way Elon Musk talks about UBI is personal for me. Yea…
basicbc.wordpress.com
"The reason for the bandage? Goodman, 44, survives by selling blood plasma twice a week. She had $3.78 in her checking account, one cent in her savings account to keep it open, and six pennies in her piggy bank." No one should have to sell their bodies to survive. We need universal basic income.
Opinion | Meet the Americans Who Can’t Afford Hair Cuts or Toilet Paper (Gift Article)
Millions of Americans struggle in sometimes unimaginable ways, and Trump’s cuts in food stamps and other benefits are now making life even more precarious.
nytimes.com
The top 10% are responsible for about 36% of all discretionary spending (the stuff beyond basics like housing, food, and healthcare) which is about equal to what the entire bottom 70% spend on discretionary stuff. Universal basic income + healthcare would enable so much more spending beyond basics.
K-shaped spending: The top 10% drop nearly as much on nonessentials as the bottom 70% combined
Households in the top 10% income bracket drop nearly as much money on discretionary items as the bottom 70% combined, according to the Bank of America Institute.
uk.finance.yahoo.com
Great example of the absurdity of conditions on welfare and why unconditional basic income is needed instead. It is absurd to force anyone with low income to travel somewhere as a hoop to jump through for survival income, especially when travel costs money and time, and the hoop is broken.
Geelan Mitchell Media@victoriannews.com.au · 7d agoI've had several reports today of several ppl on JobSeeker Allowance who have to attend Job Networks or lose their Centrelink benefits. In one confirmed instance, 55yo man, who has difficulty with mobility, paid $36 for a taxi to his mandatory appointment, but when he got there ... 1/
Don't be thrown by the name of the show. It's a nod to the myths that shape life in America. I was invited to debunk the myths that surround UBI, like how people would stop working and how it costs too much and inflation would skyrocket. These are myths. The truth is that UBI is power to the People.
Fund the Cryptid: Universal Basic Income and the Right to Say No
YouTube video by The Bigfoot Manifesto
youtu.be
Explain what you would do with universal basic income (UBI) in four words.
Set the floor, add the necessaries, let the people take it from there.
How a ‘terrible’ website helped basic income go global. By Tyler Prochazka, BasicIncome .org, July 14, 2026
How a ‘terrible’ website helped basic income go global | BIEN — Basic Income Earth Network
basicincome.org
"Several basic income participants told Business Insider that being able to use the extra cash for childcare and education allowed them to forgo unstable, PT jobs in favor of a more lucrative FT job. The vast majority of participants reported that cash increased their food and housing security..."
Hundreds of cities tried basic income. Years later, did it work?
Business Insider talked to basic income participants years apart. They shared how their lives and finances changed after receiving cash payments.
businessinsider.com
Universal Basic Income is centuries old, its reasons predating the first computers. We can demand everyone has a basic floor as a basic right without perpetually waiting for signs from above.
Everyone please go put “universal basic income” wherever you can!
Mark Gerretsen@markgerretsen.bsky.social · 2w agoYour voice can help shape Budget 2026 🇨🇦 Your feedback will help inform decisions that support a stronger economy, help families and workers, and build a more resilient future for Canada. 🗓️ Share your input by September 8, 2026. 🔗 Have your say: Canada.ca/yourbudget
We have the means to provide everyone with housing, healthcare, childcare and basic income. Suffering is a policy choice. Those in power would rather hoard the wealth than see everyone equally provided for. If everyone had their basic needs met, the world would change.
