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.

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.

Ain't that the truth, though?
I don't want to wish homelessness, hunger, poverty, or sickness onto anyone, but it might be more expedient that way.

#MAGA #Trump #homelessness #hunger #SNAP #ChildCare #MaternityLeave #healthcare #UBI

Ain't that the truth, though?
I don't want to wish homelessness, hunger, poverty, or sickness onto anyone, but it might be more expedient that way.

#MAGA #Trump #homelessness #hunger #SNAP #ChildCare #MaternityLeave #healthcare #UBI

“Basic income is not a utopian dream. It is a practical solution whose time has arrived—we need to ensure it becomes a reality.”

The article references the Mincome trial fifty years ago in Dauphin, Manitoba, where a basic income pilot showed positive results. I was a teenager living there at the time. I’m as not hopeful as the author of this article that basic income will become policy in what’s left of my lifetime.

#BasicIncome #UBI #canpoli #cdnpoli

https://rabble.ca/columnists/basic-income-in-canada-is-closer-than-you-think/

“Basic income is not a utopian dream. It is a practical solution whose time has arrived—we need to ensure it becomes a reality.”

The article references the Mincome trial fifty years ago in Dauphin, Manitoba, where a basic income pilot showed positive results. I was a teenager living there at the time. I’m as not hopeful as the author of this article that basic income will become policy in what’s left of my lifetime.

#BasicIncome #UBI #canpoli #cdnpoli

https://rabble.ca/columnists/basic-income-in-canada-is-closer-than-you-think/

RE: https://stranger.social/@lednaBM/115718877275566120

It's weird how every time someone runs a UBI or GBI test like this, it always turns out positive. Like, I *never* see headlines saying "UBI Trial in Bumfucksburg, West Idaho Fails to Achieve Goals".

They always work, never fail.

It's almost like they're a good idea and we should move past the "trial" stage, hmm? 🤔

#UBI #UniversalBasicIncome #BasicUniversalIncome #GuaranteedBasicIncome #poverty

New article from me today about the new study of Finland's basic income experiment that found recipients of unconditional income had 33% better mental health than the control group that got the same amount of money with conditions. I also dive into a lot of other evidence about #UBI and mental health.

https://open.substack.com/pub/scottsantens/p/finland-basic-income-experiment-mental-health-ubi?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&shareImageVariant=overlay&r=avhi

New article from me today about the new study of Finland's basic income experiment that found recipients of unconditional income had 33% better mental health than the control group that got the same amount of money with conditions. I also dive into a lot of other evidence about #UBI and mental health.

https://open.substack.com/pub/scottsantens/p/finland-basic-income-experiment-mental-health-ubi?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&shareImageVariant=overlay&r=avhi

New article from me in response to Eduardo Porter's article in The Guardian where he built a straw man of universal basic income to light on fire again, just as he did back in 2016, showing he's learned nothing new about #UBI in a decade but is still happy to opine about it.

https://open.substack.com/pub/scottsantens/p/the-universal-basic-income-ubi-strawman-never-dies-eduardo-porter?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=avhi