Scott Santens
@scottsantens.com
Writer and Unconditional / Universal Basic Income (UBI) advocate Founder & CEO of UBI-focused nonprofit ITSAfoundation.org Sign and share the AI Pledge for Humanity for UBI: aipledgeforhumanity.org My UBI FAQ: scottsantens.com 📩 linktr.ee/scottsantens
been thinkin about conversations i've had that are anti-UBI and the central argument seems to be "people won't work" bitch if i had ubi and didn't have to be scared of losing my livelihood i'd have like 3 degrees and have leared at least six languages by now in addition to music and art production
This is gonna blow your mind: It's called "UBI". WTF is UBI? you ask. UNCONDITIONAL BASIC INCOME with... ... WAIT FOR IT... NO FUCKING WORK REQUIREMENT!@!!# That, my friends, is ULTIMATE FREEDOM! i.e., the freedom to: REFUSE HARMFUL WORKING CONDITIONS TRUMP is the disease UBI is the cure
There are over 270 guaranteed basic income programs happening across the country? 2026 marks the 24th annual BIG on September 17-18 in Portland,OR a testament to the long term investment necessary for our economic justice movement to grow and thrive. Register today: bit.ly/big2026pdx
2026 BIG Conference!
Join us in Portland, OR September 17 & 18 for the 24th annual Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) Conference. This is the only annual conference in the U.S. focused…
bit.ly
If you want your agency back in this nation, this is how you do it. #UniversalBasicIncome #UBI is something we all need as machines replace jobs and the wealthy who profit from that manipulate the system.
Basic Income Action ↗️@basicincomeaction.org · 13h agoA simple way to think about basic income. Wealth transfer is also a transfer of power.
Imagine if we had good wages and UBI and Medicare for All and disability and fully-funded Social Security, and people could live without struggling.
And every time I see shit like this I imagine all the good that could be done with 80 million. Here's an idea. Let's get big money out of politics and have universal basic income instead.
53 applications and so far only spoke with two recuiters, what is going on with jobs... We really do need some flavor of UBI or better unemployment safety nets.
For those who look to support or oppose candidates based on their stance on #UBI, the Michigan election today is interesting in how both El-Sayed and Stevens seem open to UBI. El-Sayed actually has it on his Senate platform page while Stevens backed monthly non-means-tested $1,000/mo checks in 2020.
Attention Norwichers "Hi! I'm bringing my show Look Busy to Diss (23 Sept), Norwich (25 Sept) and Sheringham (23 Oct). It's about robots, basic income and wealth inequality, it's stupid and funny and I'm looking for people to come and chat to the audience afterwards over a drink. ...
Entire industries kept solvent by money government spent into existence, or banks lent into existence, but we can't have UBI because "where would the money come from?"
skáld@danglinghemmie.bsky.social · 2d agoeverything about this is fake except what i have to pay
The many challenges the average person is facing in society could be answered by a Universal Basic Income. Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) Congress is happening at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) from August 19 to 22.
Basic Income and solving the polycrisis
The many challenges the average person is facing in society could be answered by a Universal Basic Income.
rabble.ca
"I trust you,, like I am not gonna make you jump through hoops." The policy debate is really about what happens when survival is no longer a leash. Would a basic income give workers more freedom to say... https://bigfootmanifesto.com/fund-the-cryptid-universal-basic-income-and-the-right-to-
His priorities include universal healthcare, a $1,000 monthly Universal Basic Income, strong climate action, protecting workers and families, ending endless wars, codifying abortion rights, and digital/data rights reforms. He also wishes to uncap the house! (4/8)
"@abdulelsayed.bsky.social simultaneously used the pandemic to promote broader economic and healthcare proposals. He argued that the coronavirus had exposed an 'epidemic of insecurity' in the United States and called for Medicare for All and a universal basic income." Sounds great to me, Breitbart.
Abdul El-Sayed Joined BLM Protests While Backed COVID Lockdowns
Abdul El-Sayed defended joining 2020 BLM protests as a “public health intervention” while supporting sweeping COVID policies.
breitbart.com
Bear in mind that this is a Manhattan Institute poll with a clear bias in the question about how UBI "would require significant government funding" and go to people "whether they work", but still, that Dems and voters age 18-35 still strongly support it is something Dem politicians should leverage.
There are a great multitude of factors beyond our control that impact our decisions. That chronic stress leads to so many bad outcomes makes clear how important it is to reduce chronic financial stress in order to improve outcomes. Ending poverty and creating real security with a UBI floor is a must
Turtles All the Way Down: The Biological Case for Universal Basic Income
If our decisions are shaped by forces we never chose, then punishing people for those decisions and withholding the resources that would improve them is our true moral failure.
scottsantens.substack.com
It's occurred to me that one of the big benefits of UBI is that it would *remove vast numbers of inept people* from jobs that they only do to survive, and free them to do things they're COMPETENT AT even if they don't pay anything. You don't, e.g., ever want yours truly waiting your table.
"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 · yesterdayA 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
A 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
Creative, unconventional, and uncharacteristic for the US: create such an idyllic socialist democracy in the United States, in which the rich are heavily taxed and everyone gets UBI & healthcare, that the Iranian military feel insecure and bad about their own country.
yaoi gagarin@mel.bzky.team · yesterdayand the convention theyre creatively breaking? thats right, the geneva convention
I've literally had to sell my soul to the highest bidder just to keep up with the bills. It's like, I get it, adulting is hard, but can't we just, like, have a universal basic income or something?
Capital Pains@capitalpains.bsky.social · last yr.Adulting is hard
No money for healthcare or universal basic income but hey trillion dollars wars, billions for ICE, billions upon billions of welfare for corporations and millions for putting fake gold on shit, hundreds of millions for a ballroom and bunker, 2 billion for a mob of traitors.
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.
Alaska's Permanent Fund Dividend model should be taken to Canada—one of the most resource-rich nations in the world. "The dividend belongs to all people equally. The resources belong to all people equally. And the only way to do that is a dividend."
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 far-right thrives under conditions of extreme economic insecurity. Here's my piece on why Basic Income can make a contribution to reducing the far-right's appeal 👇
Tim Goodacre - Writer@timgoodacre.bsky.social · 5mo agoNew article: "Basic Income Against the Far-Right". I look at how a basic income program can help in combatting the far-right, and some challenges it faces timgoodacre.wordpress.com/2026/03/22/b...
I 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.
Turtles All the Way Down: The Biological Case for Basic Income in a World Without Free Will
If our decisions are shaped by forces we never chose, then punishing people for those decisions and withholding the resources that would improve them is our true moral failure.
open.substack.com
