"For years, I opposed Universal Basic Income, firmly and reflexively.

"That position no longer survives contact with reality.

"The most dangerous response is to pretend this is a liberal argument, detached from objective reality. It is not. The social consequences of mass displacement... spread. They destabilize everything conservatives claim to want to conserve."

The US is headed for mass unemployment, and no one is prepared
https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/5713876-ai-displacement-and-ubi/

#UBI #AI #Money #Jobs #Food #gop #IAmDB

"For years, I opposed Universal Basic Income, firmly and reflexively.

"That position no longer survives contact with reality.

"The most dangerous response is to pretend this is a liberal argument, detached from objective reality. It is not. The social consequences of mass displacement... spread. They destabilize everything conservatives claim to want to conserve."

The US is headed for mass unemployment, and no one is prepared
https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/5713876-ai-displacement-and-ubi/

#UBI #AI #Money #Jobs #Food #gop #IAmDB

I try not to read below-the-line comments but I did today on a news piece about #universalBasicIncome being considered by #Ukgovernment in light of #AI

I see the tin-foil hat crew have now decided to object to #UBI on the basis that it might be tied to digital ID & will be paid using bank transfer so not in cash.

I appreciate people worry about the overmighty state but these are silly objections to one of the few constructive responses to the labour challenge of new automation

In this month's newsletter: new study shows how universal basic income has been getting cheaper to implement since the 1960's—down from 9.35% of GDP to 2.67%—for a poverty obliterating UBI of $16k per adult and $8k per kid with a 50% marginal tax rate.

I also included some more recent pilot news.

https://itsanewsletter.beehiiv.com/p/itsa-newsletter-january-2026 #UBI

In this month's newsletter: new study shows how universal basic income has been getting cheaper to implement since the 1960's—down from 9.35% of GDP to 2.67%—for a poverty obliterating UBI of $16k per adult and $8k per kid with a 50% marginal tax rate.

I also included some more recent pilot news.

https://itsanewsletter.beehiiv.com/p/itsa-newsletter-january-2026 #UBI

New book (coming May 2026) _ Individuals First: The Citizen Dividends Plan to Achieve the Future We Want By Steven Shafarman
#UniversalBasicIncome #WealthEquality #UBI #SolidarityEconomics #SolidarityEconomy #money #guaranteedIncome #BasicIncome #Wealth #NonviolentAction #Revolution #PostCapitalism

@TheBreadmonkey we need #ubi

@TheBreadmonkey we need #ubi

today is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.

remember: for him, the second stage of the civil rights movement was eradicating poverty for all Americans.

that bad check from his I HAVE A DREAM speech?

that wasn’t a metaphor. there is no capitalism without inequality. racism is inequality. poverty is inequality.

for MLK, the 2nd stage of the CRM was about getting a Universal Basic Income #UBI for all.

guess who was running for POTUS in 1968 & thought it was a good idea?

Bobby Kennedy.

"Following a review of international travel conditions and visa accessibility for participants, a decision has reluctantly been reached to relocate the 2026 BIEN Congress from University of Pennsylvania, USA, to Toronto Metropolitan University Toronto, Canada."

To provide a bit more context here, since 1986, UBI academics + advocates from all over the world go to the annual BIEN Congress that's hosted in a different country each year. Last year, it was in Brazil, and the year before that S. Korea. This year was to be the FIRST EVER US-hosted BIEN Congress.

https://basicincome.org/news/2026/01/location-update-for-the-2026-bien-congress/ #UBI

today is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.

remember: for him, the second stage of the civil rights movement was eradicating poverty for all Americans.

that bad check from his I HAVE A DREAM speech?

that wasn’t a metaphor. there is no capitalism without inequality. racism is inequality. poverty is inequality.

for MLK, the 2nd stage of the CRM was about getting a Universal Basic Income #UBI for all.

guess who was running for POTUS in 1968 & thought it was a good idea?

Bobby Kennedy.

Just published my top 10 list of articles I read about universal basic income last year. #UBI

https://open.substack.com/pub/scottsantens/p/top-10-universal-basic-income-ubi-articles-2025?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&shareImageVariant=overlay&r=avhi

@tante I love free software and creative commons, but in this AI age there needs to be a way of protecting them from crawling and violating the reuse licenses. Otherwise #freesoftware is just #freelabor without #UBI

@markhburton @urlyman
I don't get your argument.
Where does #UBI rely on generating a surplus (surplus)?

Most people earn more than the UBI would be anyway, the money "surplus" is there.
With a fair tax system, the taxes paid would pay for the UBI

I perfectly get why environmentalists and degrowthers, support it as it would get rid of damaging bullshit jobs.

New article from me today about a centuries-old policy in Brazil that has a lot to tell us about just how high a universal basic income can be set at without seeing the effects on employment that so many people assume. #UBI

https://open.substack.com/pub/scottsantens/p/the-200-year-basic-income-experiment-in-brazil-for-women-ubi?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&shareImageVariant=overlay&r=avhi

@mlncn It's worth examining *which* billionaires (which factions of capital) are more amenable to #UBI than others. What proportion of their cost structure is labour, vs. to what extent do their profits derive from retail.

(Some) billionaires like people talking about universal basic income because it punts solving all the problems they are causing and profiting from to the future. They hate actual #UBI (at any meaningful livable amount) because that would mean a drastic decrease in their bargaining power – people would not work at such exploitative wages – and at the same time many people would use the income to work for a better world— a world without billionaires.