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Scott Santens 🧢🏄‍♂️ Profile picture
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3 Mar, 6 tweets, 4 min read
The results of the basic income experiment in Stockton are in.

BASIC INCOME WORKS.

✅More full-time employment
✅Income stability increased
✅It was mostly spent on essentials
✅Debts were reduced
✅Mental health improved
✅Helped family and friends too

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/… ImageImageImageImage
"Unemployment among basic income recipients dropped to 8% in February 2020 from 12% in February 2019. In the experiment's control group — those who didn't receive monthly stipends — unemployment rose to 15% from 14%."

Lack of income PREVENTS employment.

businessinsider.com/stockton-basic… ImageImage
Important to note the difference between increased employment and reduced unemployment. People without jobs were able to get them, but also, people with jobs were able to get better jobs.

Basic income helped recipients afford the costs of better jobs.

mashable.com/article/univer… Image
One recipient in particular paints a very clear picture of the effect of basic income on work. For Tomas Vargas, it meant being able to focus more on side projects, helping people on parole, and getting more engaged civically and politically.

UBI *activates* people to do more. ImageImage
I also just want to mention a couple anecdotes from recipients that stuck with me. One was how someone was able to get a tux for a wedding. Another was how a woman was able to pay off her wedding ring.

People ask what UBI is. The answer is stuff like this. It's about HUMAN LIFE. Image
I know that someday we will achieve UBI, but I just hate that we won't do it RIGHT NOW, in the midst of a pandemic when we need it most. I hate that we know it works, but that we still have to fight for it. The Stockton data is new, but it joins a pile.👇

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More from @scottsantens

Scott Santens 🧢🏄‍♂️ Profile picture
2 Mar
BREAKING: A group of 10 senators led by @RonWyden has sent a letter to @POTUS urging him to include automatic stabilizers in his Build Back Better bill. Monthly stimulus payments and boosted UI would continue until certain economic conditions are reached.

s3.amazonaws.com/s3.boldprogres…
The signatories of this letter are: @RonWyden, @ewarren, @BernieSanders, @CoryBooker, @MichaelBennet, @SherrodBrown, @SenGillibrand, @tammybaldwin, @EdMarkey, and @AlexPadilla4CA.

Please show them your support and encourage your senators to join them.

🚨 BailOutThePeople.com
For anyone who says that the next bill should focus entirely on infrastructure and not include any cash assistance, please understand that cash is LIQUID INFRASTRUCTURE. Cash can become anything. Liquid infrastructure belongs in an infrastructure bill. 👇

scottsantens.com/unconditional-…
Read 4 tweets
Scott Santens 🧢🏄‍♂️ Profile picture
1 Feb
It's fascinating how the GOP can shove through a $2 trillion tax cut for the rich during an economic expansion, but during an economic crisis when alarms are blaring and the Fed is begging for them to go big, they support only $600 billion, despite stimulus checks being tax cuts.
Republicans passed a massive tax cut for the rich, and they did it based on the logic that it would not grow the national debt because the rich would spend and invest more and grow the economy. Stimulus checks are tax cuts for the bottom 80% that would boost the economy far more.
Either Republicans are only for making the rich richer, or they don't understand that every stimulus check that goes out is a tax cut that (because it increases spending) pays for itself to a much greater degree than tax cuts for the rich who have lower propensities to consume.
Read 4 tweets
Scott Santens 🧢🏄‍♂️ Profile picture
17 Jan
It's true that a sufficiently high UBI could serve as an alternative to a $15 minimum wage, but I personally would prefer a combo of both plus a 4-day 32-hour week. Let's pay people more for work, support all unpaid work, and distribute employment and leisure time more equitably.
What the left needs to be honest about in regards to a $15 min wage is that although the overall effects will likely be positive, there will be impacts like reduced hours to compensate. Let's lean into that by leaving the 5-day 40-hour week behind. Every weekend should be 3 days.
It's also likely that a higher min wage will increase automation. Great! Let's do that! But that means less employment for humans. 4-day weeks share the available employment better, and universal basic income makes automation literally work for everyone.

medium.com/basic-income/i…
Read 9 tweets
Scott Santens 🧢🏄‍♂️ Profile picture
27 Oct 20
The following is a thread translating this short video in French by @benoithamon (he ran for president in 2017) about his new book that is a plea for France to adopt Universal Basic Income (UBI):

Translation by @So_Ethereal

1/6
Hi everyone, I'm presenting you my new book "The Necessary Courage, My Plea for a Universal Basic Income." After the presidential election I tried to think about visible barriers facing UBI but also the most important ones: the invisible ones.

2/6
What were the budgetary, economic arguments... we heard them a lot but also the psychological, philosophical ones justifying the rejection. Working class people and employees tend to think UBI would stigmatize them if it was completing their salary.

3/6
Read 6 tweets
Scott Santens 🧢🏄‍♂️ Profile picture
22 Oct 20
Because of its unconditionality, basic income is for everyone, but because everyone gets it, we can look at its effects on certain demographics. What would UBI do for single mothers, for foster youth, for Black & LGBTQ communities, for artists, for veterans, for ex-felons, etc?
The pilots popping up all over the place to look at the effects of UBI on specific groups aren't saying that UBI is only for those groups. It's about getting people from different communities to think about the effects of UBI on their own communities.

This is about storytelling.
If you can see yourself in the success story of someone provided unconditional basic income, then you are more likely to see the good sense of it. By creating a tapestry of stories people see themselves in, that's how we build a successful coalition.

A + B + C + D + E … = UBI
Read 7 tweets
Scott Santens 🧢🏄‍♂️ Profile picture
14 Oct 20
Pelosi could pass a $50 trillion bill through the House. That doesn't mean it would ever become law, and I'd argue it's meant to not become law. If her intention was to start high and meet in the middle, she's now won. If HEROES was never meant to be law, no deals can be allowed.
Mitch is playing the same game, except he is going low, with the intention of only wanting to create the impression that he wants to pass something, when what he really wants is voters to blame Democrats for not passing something.

Both sides are playing a giant game of chicken.
Who can win the battle of making the other side look like they are the ones responsible for the increasing misery of voters? With only three weeks left, whoever gives in by accepting a deal, will be taking off the table the misery of voters, which is seen as a high value card.
Read 6 tweets

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