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
We Know How to Abolish Poverty. Why Don't We?
A response to Vox's latest Vox Explains video
It's videos like this we need to share more with each other...
Everyone should be earning more. Everyone isn't earning more because of globalization and technology mostly. We used to have things called middle class jobs. Those don't exist anymore like we think they do. We lost a ton of them because we no longer . . .
Basic Income and the Problem of Freeloading Freeriders
Basic Income as Basic Resources: Part 2
(Click here to also read my introduction to the perspective of basic income as basic resources)
A common concern of the idea of basic income is the idea of freeriders lazily freeloading off the hard labor of others, contributing nothing in return.
I'm currently reading Karl Widerquist's latest book, and I like his . . .
Guaranteed Intercourse & Choose Your Buddy
Uber for Satisfaction
Read the article published on Medium by Scott Santens on November 10, 2014.
Summary: This piece is a satirical response to the idea of an income guarantee with a work requirement. It is also a response in general to the very idea of a culture that condones, encourages, enforces, and perpetuates forced labor for others.
Shouldn't All This Talk About Basic Income Actually Be Talk About Basic Resources?
An introduction to basic income as basic resources
A basic income is in a way a minimum claim to resources, with each person using this to claim the resources most important to them. The fact a basic income is given regardless of work, makes it that much more clear it exists as such a claim on resources based on the shared right to such resources.
This last point is important. No one . . .
I Voted for Nader. Twice.
Why it's important to vote for more than two parties
Happy Election Day, everyone! On days like this, I repudiate our two-party system.
The year 2000 was a nightmare year for those who support third parties. To this day, people have the fear that not only is voting for a third party equivalent to throwing away their vote, but that the result of voting for the best person for the job . . .
A Comment on the Massive Inequality in New Orleans
I made the following comment in response to this article published on Nola.com.
We need to recognize the systemic nature of all of this, and stop pretending that either "side" is responsible, or that inequality doesn't matter, and that education or jobs is the answer to our ills.
This is a process that has been . . .
My Interview with Green Party Candidate for Congress Ian Schlakman of Maryland
Originally Published on Basic Income News
This interview with Green Party candidate for Congress Ian Schlakman of Maryland's Second Congressional District was originally published on Basic Income News on October 31, 2014.
When and how were you first introduced to the idea of a basic income guarantee?
I first learned about a negative income tax when I . . .
