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Scott Santens

@scottsantens.com

25K followers 17K following 8.8K posts

Unconditional / Universal Basic Income (UBI) knowledge resource Founder & CEO of UBI-focused nonprofit ITSAfoundation.org Host of The Basic Income Show youtube.com/scottsantens My #UBI FAQ: scottsantens.com Contact me: linktr.ee/scottsantens

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Scott Santens @scottsantens.com · Dec 5

I've been researching the idea of Unconditional Universal Basic Income since 2013. Here's a collection of findings I've compiled from various UBI experiments and studies of cash transfer programs around the world.

This will be a VERY LONG and ongoing thread focused entirely on empirical evidence. 🧵

OBSERVED EFFECTS OF UBI

No significant reduction in labor supply (38 studies meta-analysis)

Increased self-employment (301%) and part-time employment (17%)

Slight decrease in alcohol and tobacco use (31 studies meta-analysis)

New mothers extend their maternity leaves

Birth weights improve due to better maternal nutrition

Graduation rates and educational outcomes improve

Hospitalization rates decline (8.5%)

Crime goes down (15%–42%) especially illegal hunting (95%)

Domestic violence decreases (30%–51%)

Trust increases (13% in politicians | 6% in other people)

Home ownership rates increase (17%–26%)

Food security increases as does consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables

Improved cognitive functioning (43%) and personality traits (31%)

Savings go up, debts go down

Source: scottsantens

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Scott Santens @scottsantens.com · 34m

Everyone needs to know that Dolly Parton responded to a climate disaster in her community with a temporary universal basic income for everyone who lost their homes.

Here's a short documentary about it:

The Great Equalizer: What Dolly Parton & a Tennessee Wildfire Can Teach About Universal Basic Income

YouTube video by In The Mesh

youtu.be

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Scott Santens @scottsantens.com · 1h

The question is how to best be anticapitalist. I think this makes a solid case.

How to Be an Anticapitalist Today

Anticapitalism isn't simply a moral stance against injustice — it's about building an alternative.

jacobin.com

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Scott Santens @scottsantens.com · 1h

Universal basic income is the answer. It needs to be a key policy in the Democratic platform. Even Milton Friedman supported it. It's cash to spend in markets. And it works, so there's that to.

An Introduction to Unconditional Basic Income For All

Why UBI is necessary now and how to get it done

www.scottsantens.com

Reposted by Scott Santens

Phoenix Russell @phoenixrussell.bsky.social · 12h

In the USA we’ve got a crime boss building a 200 million dollar ballroom for people who can’t dance rather than giving each person the UBI needed to both survive and event plan music and dance events.

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Scott Santens @scottsantens.com · 1h

The assumptions you are making about people who aren't you are sad. UBI better enables everyone to seek out their purpose. Withholding survival income from people does not help. Forcing people to work any job at all just to survive does not help.

Reposted by Scott Santens

Pumpkin Spice NZ 🇳🇿 @pumpkinspicenz.bsky.social · 10h

Everyone should have a universal basic income.

Keeping people poor and desperate only benefits the wealthy and sorted, and we’d have a much healthier society and economy if the $$ were distributed more evenly.

Study after study have shown long-term benefits (no pun intended).

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Scott Santens @scottsantens.com · 2h

"Couldn't make the math work" is such bullshit on her part. There are all kinds of ways of going about UBI and the real cost is the net cost, which is entirely affordable, especially when compared to the costs of poverty and mass insecurity.

Reposted by Scott Santens

Dreamer 🔜 MFF, LVFC, FWA @awoo.haus · 7h

Personally, I'm of the opinion we all should work less, and that UBI absolutely needs to be a thing everywhere, no exceptions.

Want to work more? Go for it, but fucking have UBI goddamn it.

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Scott Santens @scottsantens.com · 2h

UBI was so close I could taste it. So goddamn frustrating.

Reposted by Scott Santens

violet aurora discordia🏳️‍⚧️ @violetdiscordia.bsky.social · 5h

if someone opposes universal basic income and also complains about artists selling out you are morally obligated to pants them. fyi

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Scott Santens @scottsantens.com · 2h

One result of forcing people to work for survival income is that people get stuck in jobs they aren't actually any good at. A fascist regime seeking loyalists feeds on this and recruits from their ranks. Universal Basic Income would help in this regard too by creating a smaller pool to recruit from.

Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 11h

It's a well-established global phenomenon: secret police organizations always recruit losers, mediocrities, people who can't succeed in a competitive environment, whether bureaucratic, academic or commercial. These are people who will follow orders and engage in depraved, violent conduct when asked.

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Darth Biblio @darthbiblio.bsky.social · 4h

So look, after they've collapsed the economy and tanked the dollar millions of us will lose EVERYTHING. But that's when we can implement Universal Healthcare, education, childcare, housing, UBI... Because we'll literally HAVE TO.

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Eric Lee @ericleeacts.bsky.social · 4h

First, justice and accountability for the recklessness and corruption of this administration.
Then,

Universal Basic Income
Universal Health Care

No more piling work on top of people who are hurting and need help. Get them the resources and fund and staff the agencies to administer them.

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Reposted by Scott Santens

petrachor.bsky.social @petrachor.bsky.social · 3h

This. They cannot tell us we have no money for UHS or UBI. I will never ever believe them again after this regime is defeated.

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Reposted by Scott Santens

Tom Rodgers @tojuro.bsky.social · 2h

If AI can use our words and thoughts so that they can replace our jobs, then people should be given lifelong reparations in the form of UBI.

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Reposted by Scott Santens

Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 4h

Bridging my current life in Chicago and my past life in D.C., I argue today at @newrepublic.com that Democrats should ~never~ vote to fund this government. Make John Thune blow up Senate rules and Republicans wholly own the U.S. extra-military military doing war crimes against us, funded by us.

The Case for the Forever Shutdown

Senate Democrats actually allowing the GOP to stop funding the government is only the first step. Now they have to make the case that Trump’s government is illegitimate.

newrepublic.com

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Scott Santens @scottsantens.com · 2h

I agree completely. Withdraw all support. Make them reform or nuke the filibuster. Everything that follows will be on Trump and his MAGA loyalist GOP. All of it.

Scott Santens @scottsantens.com · 3h

Tax wealth. Distribute universal basic income. Fund universal basic services.

Watch authoritarianism fade.

The Hidden Reasons Authoritarianism Is Growing — And How to Reverse It

It takes all kinds. Humanity would have never made it this far without a multitude of people with a wide diversity of personality types and preferences. It is our individual differences wherein lies o...

www.scottsantens.com

Scott Santens @scottsantens.com · 3h

Doctors Prescribe Universal Basic Income

Scott Santens @scottsantens.com · 3h

It's all cosplay.

Amy @lolennui.bsky.social · 23h

George Orwell’s Animal Crossing

Someone in a frog costume facing down a line of police in riot gear

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Scott Santens @scottsantens.com · 3h

Money is not the issue. The issue is resources and economic capacity to meet demand. And poverty and mass insecurity aren't free.

How Money is Born out of Public Spending and Dies by Taxes

If there's one thing most people don't seem to understand about how money works that I think would really help governments work better in the 21st century, it's that money does not flow in the way we ...

www.scottsantens.com

Reposted by Scott Santens

Mel Halpin @melhalpin.bsky.social · 6h

The struggle due to the ever growing wealth and income inequality is a key driver in the rise of fascism, with desperate people pushed into the arms of authoritarians.

It is absolutely the time to talk about Universal Basic Income & healthcare. The world literally cannot afford for us not to.

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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 12h

Monstrous.

"federal agents detained nearly every resident of the 130-unit building—including children and babies—placing them in zip ties and separating them by race into vans for more than two hours early Tuesday morning."

Daniel Knowles @dlknowles.bsky.social · 15h

Good reporting on the South Shore raid from South Side weekly here.

Confirms one thing I was told but didn't put in my own piece because I didn't have a second source and it seemed too insane: border agents segregated arrested residents by race

southsideweekly.com/federal-agen...

Federal Agents Storm South Shore Building, Detaining Families and Children

Families were woken by flashbangs and helicopters as hundreds of federal agents raided their homes. Days later, neighbors are still searching for the missing.

southsideweekly.com

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Scott Santens @scottsantens.com · 12h

It's not missed. It's mentioned all the time. What's missed is how overblown that fear is for poverty level amounts of UBI.

17 Key Variables That Determine UBI’s Inflationary Impact

Will universal basic income cause inflation? Will the prices of everything rise? I get asked that all the time. Here's the deal about UBI and inflation: it all depends. Can UBI be inflationary? Sure,...

www.scottsantens.com

Reposted by Scott Santens

pawsplay.bsky.social @pawsplay.bsky.social · 1d

UBI isn't just a cool concept, it's a necessity that needs to be implemented a lot sooner than people think. #UBI

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