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Scott Santens 🧢⬆️🏄‍♂️ Profile picture
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11 Jan, 4 tweets, 1 min read
Interesting threat. Basically, Mitch is like "Look here, everyone. If you make it easier to debate and vote on legislation, we're going to start debating and voting on legislation, and none of us here want that, right?"

yahoo.com/news/republica…
Mitch is framing it like a bad thing, for Congress to actually debate and vote on bills, because some votes could make legislators look bad to their constituents, but the lack of that is exactly the problem. If a lawmaker votes yes on unpopular laws, then voters SHOULD fire them.
Right now, elections have less teeth, which is helping drive polarization. People just vote for their favorite team, and because of gridlock, people win based on what they say. If they start actually doing unpopular things, that could change who people actually vote for.
A functioning government requires functioning feedback mechanisms. It's not functional to just prevent stuff from ever happening because it might be bad. Bad stuff needs to be able to happen so that voters can adjust the way they vote. Then more good stuff can happen in response.

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More from @scottsantens

Scott Santens 🧢⬆️🏄‍♂️ Profile picture
6 Nov 21
I chatted with @JENFL23 the other day about UBI, MMT, ranked-choice voting, the @Fwd_Party, and about incentives in general and how what @AndrewYang is trying to do is to get people excited about reforming systems with reforms that don't typically excite.

Getting people excited about the possibility of starting to receive $1,000 a month is a lot easier than getting people excited about the prospect of being able to vote for more than one candidate, and ranking them to convey preferences. But the former may just require the latter.
To those not steeped in politics, especially those turned off by it, it's really challenging to get people excited about reforming a process they aren't interested in, but we need to try, and that's what Yang is attempting to do. He's trying to mobilize the disengaged.
Read 6 tweets
Scott Santens 🧢⬆️🏄‍♂️ Profile picture
21 Oct 21
We must break out of our current understanding of taxing to spend that limits our ability to spend, when the only real limits we have are our real capacity limits. The issue isn't lack of money. It's what to do in addition to spending to manage inflation.

vocal.media/theSwamp/why-w… Image
We are watching what happens in real-time of this belief that we can't somehow afford $3.5 trillion in spending, despite being our own currency issuer. Means-tested stuff gets more means-tested. Stuff gets axed. Other stuff expires faster. It's the wrong discussion to be having.
We shouldn't be arguing over what to save and what to cut and what to trim. The debate should be on how to best design the programs, and then how to best manage the impacts of that spending on the economy. What kind and amount of taxes? How to best improve supply chain issues?
Read 4 tweets
Scott Santens 🧢⬆️🏄‍♂️ Profile picture
11 Oct 21
67% of over 1,000 Americans surveyed in new poll support #UBI. Support was strongest among Democrats (82%), Gen Z (79%), Finance and Insurance (71%), non-college grads (71%), and those earning under $25,000 (77%).

skynova.com/blog/what-woul… Image
The top benefit of UBI according to those surveyed was that it would decrease both poverty and inequality, and help those with poor health and disabilities.

The top concerns were that it would reduce the incentive to work and increase the national debt by costing too much. Image
When asked how people would use their UBI, most people said they'd save it for retirement, or save it for emergencies, or buy groceries, or pay off debt.

GenZ with the strongest support for UBI is the most likely to pay off student loan debt with it.

13% would buy a house. 🏡 Image
Read 5 tweets
Scott Santens 🧢⬆️🏄‍♂️ Profile picture
9 Oct 21
We just ran a huge unemployment experiment. Half the states reduced UI, it didn't increase employment compared to the states that kept UI. Then the UI expired and it didn't increase employment. Obviously UI isn't the issue but they REALLY want to force people to accept low wages.
These people want so badly to exploit others for their own benefit, that they don't seem to see that they're making things worse for themselves too. You can't cut incomes in a consumer economy and expect employment to rocket up. Consumer spending is what fuels our economy.
If we want to increase employment, we need to realize a pandemic still exists, and that's the main issue to tackle. We also need to make sure everyone has money to spend, and that they can afford things like child care to make employment make sense.

We should also automate more.
Read 6 tweets
Scott Santens 🧢⬆️🏄‍♂️ Profile picture
13 Sep 21
I've never spent longer writing anything than I have writing this article. I'm excited today to finally present to you my explanation of why we need Modern Monetary Theory (#MMT) and why it needs Universal Basic Income (#UBI).

vocal.media/theSwamp/why-w…

#longreads @StephanieKelton Image
Targeting does nothing but create unnecessary bureaucracy, stigma, and holes for people in need to fall through. Pay 'em all and let taxes sort 'em out. Utilizing taxation instead of means-testing as a tool to shape policy leads to better outcomes with fewer errors of exclusion. Image
When it comes to federal policies, going from "can we pay for it?" to "can we resource it?" is the mindset shift needed to achieve a human-centered eco-friendly resource-based economy built with a mindset of abundance on a foundation of human rights.

vocal.media/theSwamp/why-w… #MMT Image
Read 4 tweets
Scott Santens 🧢⬆️🏄‍♂️ Profile picture
7 Sep 21
I'm very proud to announce the launch of something I took part in over the course of 2020 and early 2021 where a vision document was collaboratively crafted as a North Star of principles, rights, and institutions to help guide the direction of the future.

socialcontract.fundforhumanity.org
Notice how we believe the future needs to recognize and uphold the INTRINSIC WORTH of every person and community. That's the North Star we should shoot for, where everyone is equally worthy of existing and everyone is provided with the means of participating in their communities.
"In our imagined future a generation from now, we have evolved from a society where we see our own and others’ dignity and potential as contingent on our job, income, wealth, and identity, to one where we respect our own and each other’s intrinsic dignity."
Read 8 tweets

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