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Scott Santens

Unconditional/Universal Basic Income (UBI) advocate with a crowdfunded basic income; Founder and President of ITSA Foundation, Author of Let There Be Money; Editor of BasicIncomeToday.com

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The U.S. Could Adopt Universal Basic Income in Less Than 20 Years

This article was originally published on Futurism [https://futurism.com/interview-scott-santens-talks-universal-basic-income-and-why-the-u-s-could-adopt-it-by-2035] . Daniel Araya: Scott, everyone seems to be talking about universal basic income as a way to resolve technological unemployment. How do you define basic income? How did you come to embrace the idea of basic income? Scott Santens: I

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One Happy Story - The Citizens Basic Income

When I met Senator Eduardo Suplicy of Brazil earlier this year at the NABIG15 Congress [https://medium.com/basic-income/notes-of-discussions-in-the-north-american-basic-income-guarantee-congress-of-2015-56607ceb9362] in New York, he handed me and many others there this cute little children's book about basic income in Brazil. For those who aren't aware, Brazil

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Everything You Think You Know About The History and Future of Jobs Is Likely Wrong

47 percent... That's the highly cited estimate out of Oxford by Frey and Osbourne [http://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/academic/The_Future_of_Employment.pdf] of the percentage of existing jobs that are likely to be automated away with the help of technology within the next

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Should the Amount of Basic Income Vary With Cost of Living Differences?

A common first question in response to the idea of unconditionally guaranteeing a monthly cash stipend to everyone sufficient to meet their basic needs is in regards to a potential need for differing amounts of basic income [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-santens/why-should-we-support-the_b_7630162.html] . Let's examine

Should the Amount of Basic Income Vary With Cost of Living Differences?
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Minimum Wages vs. Universal Basic Income

Below is the full audio (with text) of my commentary originally recorded for WNYC's The Takeaway for a discussion about reconsidering the minimum wage [http://www.thetakeaway.org/story/reconsidering-minimum-wage/], of which only a small portion was aired. It is available here now in its entirety. Audio: Text:

Minimum Wages vs. Universal Basic Income
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Trickle-Down Economics Must Die, Long Live Grown-Up Economics

The myth of inequality-driven economic growth and how to achieve real prosperity for all “Economics, as it has been practiced in the last three decades, has been positively harmful for most people.” — Economist Ha-Joon Chang For over thirty years we’ve treated something as fact which is actually false. Economists

Trickle-Down Economics Must Die, Long Live Grown-Up Economics
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Multimedia Appearances

Note: I'm no longer updating this list. Please use my YouTube playlist [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXhMtYULkYuH85n9HcJBd3p4dnrzPCzUI] instead. A collection of my appearances in order of newest to oldest: The Tim Black Show (September 5, 2019) Hill of Roses Candidate Supporter Debate (September 1, 2019) Nerds

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Our Paradoxical Economy Courtesy of Technology and the Lack of Basic Income

The Question of Slowing Productivity Amidst Rising Automation The latest numbers are in [http://bigstory.ap.org/article/c4f2a1cc39df4ed0ae6e9b1cea53b2c9/job-markets-new-normal-smaller-workforce-sluggish-pay] , and there are now more people not working in the U.S. as a percentage of the total population, than ever in the last 38 years. Some are already asking

Our Paradoxical Economy Courtesy of Technology and the Lack of Basic Income
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If You Want to Pass Stuff Like TPP... We're Going to Need Basic Income

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) [https://www.eff.org/issues/tpp] is a "free trade [http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/11/24/what-weve-learned-from-nafta/nafta-successfully-undermined-regulations] " treaty that at this point may be Dead on Arrival (DOA) [http://www.cnbc.com/id/102760609] (though the loss is not guaranteed). If

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A Game of Musical Chairs Over Hot Coals

There's a common belief that people who don't have jobs somehow just aren't trying hard enough, and this belief is therefore based on the idea that there are enough jobs for everyone. To get a job, all one really needs to do is just