What People Get Most Wrong About Unconditional Basic Income
Prospect Magazine approached me to write an article for them about what people get most wrong about unconditional basic income [https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/other/what-people-get-most-wrong-about-unconditional-basic-income] . It was published on December 3, 2018. As it exists behind a soft paywall, the full article can be found below. You can
The Zombification of Intellectual Property and the Tool That Could Finally Reform It
How IP-Funded Basic Income Could Enrich the Public Domain You know what a zombie is, right? Do you know why you know? You know because of a mistake that threw Night of the Living Dead freely into the public domain, bypassing all standard copyright protections. Purely by accident, George Romero’
Doug Ford Cancelled Ontario’s Basic Income Pilot Experiment Because It Was Working
Ontario should demand the completion of the OBIP experiment in the name of empirical evidence and human research ethics Update: Since my publication of this article, two [https://labourstudies.mcmaster.ca/documents/southern-ontarios-basic-income-experience.pdf] surveys [https://assets.nationbuilder.com/bicn/pages/42/attachments/original/1551664357/BICN_-_Signposts_to_Success.
What We Need to Truly Thrive: Democracy and Unconditional Basic Income (UBI)
The text below is a speech I wrote for a keynote in Ireland for DemCon 2018. The PowerPoint I created for it is also available here [https://www.slideshare.net/ScottSantens/unconditional-basic-income-and-democracy] . > “Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration.” — Frank Herbert, Dune Fear…
Basic Income Guarantee Would Provide Economic Security
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said it best during a November 1967 lecture, “We are demanding an emergency program to provide employment for everyone in need of a job, or if a work program is impractical, a guaranteed annual income at levels that sustain life in decent circumstances. It is
One Thing to Build a More Open World: Unconditional Basic Income (UBI)
The video below was created for The Economist's Open Future contest [https://www.economist.com/openfuture/video-contest] where everyone has one minute to change the world. This is my minute. The one thing I would change is no power to say NO... No. I will not work for
Unconditional Basic Income Would Fix a Major Flaw in Markets
Do you like markets? Well, whether you like them or not, they're pretty effective in most cases. The ability for two people to make an exchange where both feel they leave the exchange better off than prior to the exchange is a powerful thing. It's a
The Monsters, Inc. Argument for Unconditional Basic Income
Every year since 2002 [http://usbig.net/congresses.php#past], there is a North American Basic Income Guarantee Congress [https://medium.com/basic-income/notes-of-discussions-in-the-north-american-basic-income-guarantee-congress-of-2015-56607ceb9362] held in either the US or Canada. On the eve of this year’s NABIG in Hamilton, Ontario [https://www.basicincomecanada.org/nabig_congress_2018_registration_
The Future of the Labor Movement Rests on the Achievement of Universal Basic Income
Today is May Day and International Workers Day and Labour Day, and beyond recognizing the past victories of the labor movement in achieving milestones like the 8-hour day and the 40-hour week, we really need to talk about the future of the labor movement in a world increasingly automated by
Don't Make People in Need Jump Through Hoops for Food
The Trump administration has recently proposed adding what I consider to be some pretty counterproductive new requirements for SNAP [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/04/12/gop-proposes-stricter-work-requirements-for-food-stamp-recipients-a-step-toward-a-major-overhaul-of-the-social-safety-net/] (aka food stamp) recipients. In response to this, I immediately signed a public statement in defense of SNAP as an