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Scott Santens 🧢🏄‍♂️ Profile picture
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17 May, 4 tweets, 2 min read
Parents will receive their first child tax credit payment on July 15. Each month thereafter for six months 39 million families will receive another. We should make them permanent like Romney proposes, plus extend monthly payments to childless adults too.

nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1…
The monthly child tax credit is essentially the income guarantee for families that Nixon proposed half a century ago. That's how long ago we could have started dramatically reducing child poverty, but we chose not to. It's time to change that for good.

humanityforward.com/blog/scott-san…
There are however some problems with the design of the new child tax credit. Because the IRS handles them, tax filing is required. So make sure and file! But there will be many low income non-filers who earn too little to file who don't know they qualify.

peoplespolicyproject.org/2021/05/17/irs…
This is one detail where Mitt Romney's design for a permanent monthly child payment is arguably superior, because it would make the payments be handled by the Social Security Administration instead of the IRS. No tax filing would be required.

peoplespolicyproject.org/2021/02/04/rom…

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More from @scottsantens

Scott Santens 🧢🏄‍♂️ Profile picture
11 May
Some progressive guaranteed income supporters are making the claim that a targeted guaranteed income approach will reduce inequality more than universal basic income (UBI) because they want GI to exclude the rich. Here's why I think that's false and based on bad analysis.

THREAD
Let's say you're a very wealthy GI supporter and you think GI should be means-tested in the same way the stimulus checks were so that you receive nothing. The total cost is seen as less than the cost of UBI, and your taxes go up $1 million a year. That indeed reduces inequality.
However, now consider a $20k/yr UBI that would be considered much more expensive than a $20k/yr GI. Do you think your taxes would go up by only $1.02 million? If so, you'd see the exact same loss of disposable income as a $20k GI design. But that's a very unrealistic assumption.
Read 8 tweets
Scott Santens 🧢🏄‍♂️ Profile picture
15 Apr
Among families earning under $50,000, 56% mostly used their $1400 stimulus check to pay down debt, 26% mostly saved it, and 18% mostly spent it.

Among families earning over$100,000, 38% mostly paid down debt, 39% mostly saved it, and 23% mostly spent it.

economicsecurityproject.org/wp-content/upl…
I think it's important to note that based on the above numbers, 77% to 82% of the stimulus checks put no upward pressure on inflation at all because the money didn't chase any goods or services in limited supply.

In fact, paying off debt is deflationary.

yesmagazine.org/economy/2019/0…
So why spend $850 billion on stimulus checks if the majority of the money was saved or used to pay off loans instead of being spent into the economy? Because money can be for survival or loan forgiveness or a feeling of security for a rainy day.

Let people decide for themselves.
Read 6 tweets
Scott Santens 🧢🏄‍♂️ Profile picture
31 Mar
Here's a quick thread on the $UBI coin project that's part of @DemocracyEarth and @Kleros_io on the Ethereum blockchain that @santisiri has recently launched.

First, I have to say, I'm impressed by its approach to UBI which includes some pros and cons.

proofofhumanity.id
Pros:

1. Verified humans receive $UBI in the form of a constant drip. With every second of existence, you get a bit more UBI.

2. Verification is a process that prevents one person from getting more than one account.

3. The currency provided has actual value. (about $450/mo)
Cons:

1. The application process is prohibitively expensive. It cost me about $350 of which $290 was refundable. ($60 was the ETH gas fee)

2. The application process requires the ability to setup and connect an ETH wallet with sufficient ETH, and record a video + post a photo.
Read 9 tweets
Scott Santens 🧢🏄‍♂️ Profile picture
3 Mar
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
Read 6 tweets
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

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