Today’s Child Tax Credit Versus the Family Security Act 2.0
Summary: An analysis by the Niskanen Center of the changes FSA2 proposes concluded that poverty would drop by 13%. It would lift more than 1.1 million kids out of poverty and that’s without raising any new taxes and instead just spending what we already spend, but differently. The
How the Baby Formula Crisis Helps Show the Difference Between Cash and Benefits-in-Kind
Summary: I think some kind of compromise between Democrats and Republicans along such lines is something that deserves serious consideration as a response to the baby formula shortage. If we can reduce child poverty while also helping to prevent another baby formula shortage, plus give moms more individual freedom to
How to Calculate the Cost of Universal Basic Income (Hint: It's Not As Easy As You Might Think)
I've written about this before, about how the cost of universal basic income is its net cost, not its gross cost, but because this question of the cost of UBI is so frequently raised, and so frequently misunderstood, I'm going to attempt to explain this in
How the Monthly Child Tax Credit Reduced the Level of Desperation in America
With the enhanced CTC, fewer parents resorted to selling their blood plasma and paying 391% interest rates in order to feed and house their families Money is protection. When we have enough of it, it can be an all-purpose shield, able to protect us from all kinds of things. Protection
No, Ukraine did not just introduce Universal Basic Income. Here is what it did do.
On December 19, 2021, Ukraine launched “ePidtrymka” which translates to eSupport. It was launched on Diia which is a smartphone app and web portal that itself was launched in February 2020 to function as a means of storing and sharing digital versions of documents, and also making government services available
The Monthly Child Tax Credit Gave Birth to New Entrepreneurs
It’s no coincidence that during the pandemic, entrepreneurship increased in the United States by 23%, which was more than any other advanced economy. Capital Requirements Bottleneck Small Business Formation They say necessity is the mother of invention, but what they don’t say in the same breath is that
An Introduction to Unconditional Basic Income For All
Let’s talk about humanity... Human civilization was not ready for COVID-19, nor is it ready for the continuing impacts of climate change, nor the impacts we will increasingly feel as we automate more and more employment. As a species, we were not ready. We’re still not ready. And
The Rise of Omicron is Grounds for Extending the Monthly Child Tax Credit
The end of CTC payments will also mean the end of employment for some parents, right when times are most difficult due to an Omicron wave. Omicron is Likely the Fastest-Spreading Virus Known to Humankind Omicron is spreading like wildfire across the country, with a doubling rate of about two
Podcast Episode: Vision and Foundations for a Better Society
From 2019 to 2021, I took part in a convening on automation, opportunity, and belonging to visualize the future and how to get to a better one among the infinitely possible versions of it. Together we crafted over multiple iterations a vision document of the kind of society we could
My New (And First) Book: Let There Be Money
Now available in paperback and Kindle For those who have read my long essay about UBI and MMT [https://vocal.media/theSwamp/why-we-need-modern-monetary-theory-mmt-and-why-it-needs-universal-basic-income-ubi] (or listened to me narrate it [https://anchor.fm/scottsantens/episodes/Why-We-Need-Modern-Monetary-Theory-MMT-and-Why-It-Needs-Universal-Basic-Income-UBI-e175t4m] ) in its entirety, you know it was long. At near 14,000 words, it takes
