Thread by @scottsantens

THREAD: What I'm about to tell you I only understand because I have a #BasicIncome already and it's hugely important for everyone to understand right now in this #coronavirus moment.

$1 ≠ $1

That may seem like bad math, but let me try and explain...

Many of us were already feeling financial insecurity prior to this pandemic. Every month was a matter of survival. Would you earn enough? Would you keep your job? What would happen if you lost your job? Would you find another? Would you go on welfare? Would you become homeless?

All of those fears and anxieties are now actually happening. It's real. People are actually losing their sources of income. People have no idea how long they'll be without income and what's going to happen to them. People are scared shitless and rightly so.

There's no security.

All of the ordinary policy responses are rooted within insecurity. Unemployed? Maybe you'll get unemployment insurance. Maybe you won't. Maybe you'll get welfare. Maybe you won't. Maybe you'll get a tax cut. Does that even affect you if your income vanished?

Insecurity reigns.

What we must do is reign in insecurity.

There is only one policy response that provides real security because security is a feeling built on knowing in advance. It's not about the money. It's about the unconditionality of the money.

We need to know our worst fears won't happen.

If everyone knows that the worst possible scenario for them is an absolute minimum of $1,000 per month instead of $0, they feel something different. Starvation is off the table. That may sound small, but it's not. It means that fear no longer occupies your mind. You are lighter.

What the government desperately needs to do to avoid mass desperation is to step in and say, "We got you. You are all American. We are all in this together. This nation was founded to secure and protect each other, and that's exactly what we'll do. No worst fears. No conditions."

An #EmergencyUBI is about the amount of money least. Most of all, it's about introducing a solid floor underneath everyone so no one fears falling into the great depths of the unknown. It's not the same for someone to keep an extra $1k as it is to know $1k will always be there.

A fully universal unconditional check provided each and every month for at least the next three months that excludes no one (including kids) means that every single person will feel that minimal sense of security through this crisis.

That feeling isn't nothing.

It's everything.

Yes, there are health reasons for UBI right now. Yes, there are economic reasons for UBI right now. But, I just want to emphasize that what's going on right now requires a response that understands what we are all feeling and addresses it. We don't know what's going to happen.

We don't know and we can't know, but what we can do is pull together and swear to each other that no one will be left behind. No one. That's the entire reason we founded this nation in the first place, because we knew we were stronger together than as individuals all on our own.

Now is the time to reaffirm our founding principles. None of us are on our own. We are all Americans and we refuse to let one person fall because that one person could be us. We will protect each other and recognize that a storm is here and the only way to weather it is together.

There has never been a moment in time in any of our lives where it is more important than right now in this very moment to construct a floor that no one falls beneath and that we can all use to stand upon and rebuild after this pandemic has passed and our lives are unpaused.

There are so many reasons to demand an #EmergencyUBI by calling and writing your legislators to support it, but as someone who I think is a lot less afraid than a lot of other people right now because I feel I'm going to be okay, EVERYONE needs to feel too that they will be okay.

We will get through this, but I implore you to try and understand how important a feeling of security is to everyone as things get worse before they get better. What we need to do, we need to do right now, and that's guaranteeing at least for the next few months, a bare minimum.

Look beyond the amount.

Look beyond means-testing.

Look instead at creating an island of known within a sea of unknown.

Unconditionality.

Universality.

Basic needs.

These are what define UBI, and making sure we provide UBI right now is what will define *us*, and our nation.