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 Medium: "Think Like a Martian about Money and UBI"
I've just published a new feature-length article over on Medium where I get into the concept of money and what UBI is all about from the perspective of an alien being not of this Earth: "Think Like a Martian About Money and Universal Basic Income (UBI)". It's also actually the text of the keynote speech I gave in . . .
Posted in: mediummoneytranscript
My Unconditional Basic Income Testimony for Maryland's House Ways and Means Committee
As submitted for the public record on March 1, 2019
Click here to optionally listen instead of read this post.
In mid-February I was contacted by the legislative aide for Delegate Gabriel Acevero of Maryland who has introduced a bill to create a social wealth fund intended to eventually pay out a cash dividend to every resident of Maryland. As a prominent advocate for UBI, I . . .
Posted in: activismautomationcash transferschild povertydividendspartial basic incomepovertytechnological unemploymentunderemployment
One Observed Effect of Unconditional Basic Income: Better More Reliable Transportation
2-minute video
Unconditional basic income means many things to many people, being that cash offers total freedom of choice on what good or service to exchange it for, but one particularly common thing it allows people to newly obtain, who feel they need the most help in obtaining it, is transportation.
In the US, 17% of household . . .
New on Medium: "What is there to learn from Finland's basic income experiment? Did it succeed or fail?"
Understanding Finland's experiment of partial basic income and slightly fewer conditions
I've just published a new feature-length article over on Medium where I get into the preliminary results of the basic income experiment in Finland "What is There to Learn From Finland’s Basic Income Experiment? Did It Succeed or Fail?".
Here's an excerpt from the beginning:
After two years of . . .
What is Unconditional Basic Income in One Word?
A survey of over 500 people about UBI
I've been in a couple rooms of around 50 people or so where we were asked to describe in one word, why we believe unconditional basic income is important, and each time I was impressed with the great variety of responses, but also how certain responses were expressed again and again. Inspired by those responses, I posed the same question . . .
Posted in: the movement
Basic Income is now a dominant discussion in India's 2019 general election
India becomes first nation to debate the details of how best to begin to implement UBI nationwide
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With the historic announcement by India's opposition party of an intention to implement basic income for the poor (not UBI), just two years after India's 2016-2017 Economic Survey called UBI "the shortest path to . . .
Posted in: cash transfersindiapoverty
"The time has come for us to civilize ourselves by the total, direct, and immediate abolition of poverty." — Martin Luther King Jr.
About MLK's advocacy for basic income
It is not as widely known as it should be, but Martin Luther King Jr. wrote and spoke about the need for an unconditional basic income before he was killed. Here is a video of him speaking about UBI at Stanford in 1967.
One of the answers it seems to me, is a guaranteed annual income, a guaranteed minimum income for . . .
