Basic Income

What are you doing to help grow the movement for #BasicIncome? One thing you can do is follow this account, hit the bell, and make a point of regularly liking and retweeting the tweets of fellow UBI advocates.

Basic income supporters get called neoliberals by some progressives and communists by some capitalists. It's not about the means of production. It's about the means of consumption. Capitalism works for those who can signal demand, but all markets can and do fail, so we need govt.

I took part in a formal debate yesterday about how to respond to automation, with universal basic income or $50,000 jobs for anyone who wants one. The recording of it is now available on my YouTube channel. Spoiler: The judges determined Team UBI won. youtube.com/watch?v=MxtrqZ…

Sad news today. Marshall Brain has died. His book Manna was the catalyst for beginning my UBI advocacy back in 2013. We met in 2015 at my first basic income conference. My condolences to his family and friends. My gratitude for what he added to humanity. newsvital.com.ng/ncsu-death-mar…

Doug Ford: $200 for everyone! Justin Trudeau: $250 but only for those who reported earnings of less than $150k because I insist on means-testing to make people feel excluded and angry. Also a temporary holiday sales tax break for certain items. Me: 🤦‍♂️ apnews.com/article/trudea…

@CBSNews They want basic income.

Some voters are hoping President-elect Donald Trump may send out another stimulus check. Experts say the likelihood of this is extremely slim. cbsn.ws/4hZrqlH

@scottsantens @EdKrassen 💯 Exactly

@EdKrassen Yes we need UBI, but we also should have started it decades ago when productivity first decoupled from wages. It's the downward pressure on wages that's the biggest concern, not permanent unemployment. And we SHOULD all be benefitting from automation. scottsantens.com/ai-will-rapidl…

Without a Universal Basic Income, the United States could face a major crisis. AI and robotics are advancing so quickly that many American jobs are already being replaced, and this trend is only going to grow. People don’t realize how close we are to a future where most jobs could disappear. Think about the possibility of AI reaching Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) in the next five years and Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI) shortly after that. Now imagine humanoid robots that are stronger, faster, more precise, and more flexible than humans. If these robots are powered by that superintelligent AI, they would essentially have a “brain” that makes them capable of outperforming humans in almost every way. These super-intelligent, super-capable robots would be able to do almost any job better than a human could, and they would cost less than paying human workers. One single robot in a household could be your family's mechanic, handyman, plumber, baby sitter, chef, Heating/AC repairman (Although AC's themself would likely be self-reparing). The only jobs that might survive are the ones that require a human connection or emotional understanding. Without something like Universal Basic Income to help people survive this transition, millions of Americans could end up unemployed and without support, all while the GDP of America increases exponentially. This is a serious issue, and we need to start preparing for it now before it’s too late.

Workers: Let's talk about basic income.

Feed the hungry.🍇 Clothe the naked.👕 Help the needy.🤝 UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME NOW.💰

@scottsantens @invis4yo THIS

@invis4yo Studies of universal basic income consistently show significant decreases in depression and anxiety. twitter.com/scottsantens/s…

I think depression and anxiety could be partly cured by financial stability.

"There is, in fact, a free banquet, of which every rich person daily partakes. It is long past time they invited the rest of us." George Scialabba on the case for a universal basic income: commonwealmagazine.org/free-banquet

I think the takeaway here is that a single $1200 direct payment had a tremendous, tangible impact on the average person’s life. We would be in a much better place if Democrats had the courage to seriously push something like universal basic income.

Basic Income Grant Coalition of Namibia protested against the government’s proposed basic income grant on Saturday. They say the grant excludes most of the population. To qualify, households must meet income levels below N$1600. Read the full article here: buff.ly/3V1YJLd

Simple. To the point. Basic income would mean being surrounded at work by people who truly choose to be there.

If you want to watch the recording of this debate, you can still just click on the link below to watch it. The debate was universal basic income versus universal basic employment. Team UBI won. 👍

How can Basic Income support a just energy transition? Communities are being devastated by climate disasters. Workers are being negatively impacted by transitions in the energy system. Debates are raging internationally as the world meets at #COP29 to discuss these challenges. An important question is how social protection, particularly #BasicIncome can protect communities and workers, and support a #JustEnergyTransition (JET). This factsheet by @IEJ_SA explores the international and local discussions and evidence on this question. *It will soon be available in four languages* iej.org.za/ubig-factsheet…

Guaranteed basic income program will pay 250 LA Community College District students $1,000 per month abc7.com/post/guarantee…

@chadmercer30 @RossKneeDeep @OriginalNPH It’s less expensive (and more fiscally responsible) to pay everyone a universal basic income than it is to pay for the system of denials