Scott Santens
Writer and full-time advocate of unconditional basic income (UBI); Citizen of Earth and New Orleans; Bachelor of Science in Psychology; Editor of Basic Income Today
New on Vocal: Why We Need Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and Why It Needs Universal Basic Income (UBI)
Also available to listen to in podcast form
It's published!!! At just shy of 14,000 words, my latest article is the closest thing to writing a book that I've done so far. Despite its length, it's still meant to be readable like an enjoyable book, and not a heavy academic slog that no one will read. I hope readers will agree.
I've long avoided . . .
Posted in: analogyautomationbullshit jobscostdebtevidencefunding methodsmoneymotivationproductivitysciencespendingunpaid laborvoluntary labor
The Cost of Universal Basic Income is the Net Transfer Amount, Not the Gross Price Tag
Why every estimate of UBI that simply multiplies the number of recipients by the amount received is simply wrong
Imagine a group of 5 people. They have an income distribution of $10, $20, $30, $50, and $100. Someone gets the BIG idea of everyone putting 40% of their money into a hat, and dividing the result equitably between everyone.
That means $4, $8, $12, $20, and $40 goes into the hat. That's $84 which when divided by 5 is $16.80.
. . .Posted in: cost
Eating food will fail to reduce malnutrition, new report warns
How to recognize when an anti-UBI title is "fake news"
The OECD recently published a report on basic income as a policy option for the future of work. It concluded that universal basic income would require large tax increases to avoid increasing poverty. Others have since picked up on the report with headlines like, "Universal basic income would fail to cut poverty, says OECD" which . . .
Posted in: costpartial basic incomepoverty
How to Reform Welfare and Taxes to Provide Every American Citizen a Basic Income
My proposed funding plan for UBI in the US
The Economic Security Project has just published an article from me on Medium titled "How to Reform Welfare and Taxes to Provide Every American Citizen a Basic Income". It's a more detailed funding plan for a potentially cross-partisan implementation of universal basic income in the United States. For those looking for numbers, . . .
New Medium Article: Universal Basic Income as the Social Vaccine of the 21st Century
Can the savings of basic income exceed the costs?
Read the article I published on Medium on February 5th, 2015.
Summary: This article starts with an introduction to how hugely cost-saving vaccines are, especially our use of them to eradicate smallpox. It then asks if poverty could be like smallpox and goes into basic income's potential as a social vaccine to eradicate it, and . . .
