Scott Santens
@scottsantens.com
25K followers 16K following 9K posts
Unconditional / Universal Basic Income (UBI) knowledge resource Founder & CEO of UBI-focused nonprofit ITSAfoundation.org Host of The Basic Income Show youtube.com/scottsantens My #UBI FAQ: scottsantens.com Contact me: linktr.ee/scottsantens
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scottsantens.com
I've been researching the idea of Unconditional Universal Basic Income since 2013. Here's a collection of findings I've compiled from various UBI experiments and studies of cash transfer programs around the world.

This will be a VERY LONG and ongoing thread focused entirely on empirical evidence. 🧵
OBSERVED EFFECTS OF UBI

No significant reduction in labor supply (38 studies meta-analysis)

Increased self-employment (301%) and part-time employment (17%)

Slight decrease in alcohol and tobacco use (31 studies meta-analysis)

New mothers extend their maternity leaves

Birth weights improve due to better maternal nutrition

Graduation rates and educational outcomes improve

Hospitalization rates decline (8.5%)

Crime goes down (15%–42%) especially illegal hunting (95%)

Domestic violence decreases (30%–51%)

Trust increases (13% in politicians | 6% in other people)

Home ownership rates increase (17%–26%)

Food security increases as does consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables

Improved cognitive functioning (43%) and personality traits (31%)

Savings go up, debts go down


Source: scottsantens
Reposted by Scott Santens
greysleeves.bsky.social
How about we just do that? Ignore the people and their political parties, and let's just hold a national vote on Universal Basic Income.
Let's see what the voter turnout would be when we're not voting for untrustworthy people in suits with vested interests.
#ubi
Reposted by Scott Santens
whimsymonger.bsky.social
We should have a universal basic income, healthcare for all and treat EVERYONE with dignity and respect.
ghmansfield.bsky.social
Once you have called disabled people a burden, you have facilitated the devaluation, dehumanization and death of disabled people.
Reposted by Scott Santens
lynnsaga.bsky.social
Like I thought I haven't been getting paid enough I literally can't understand how this is ok in the "richest country in the world"??? Universal basic income really is the only way forward
Reposted by Scott Santens
david-stone.bsky.social
In a perfect world, we'll have a Universal Basic Income. Absolutely. It will be when we finally realize that, regardless of our abilities, we all have common, basic needs, and that requires a basic level of income. It's about forty years overdue.
Reposted by Scott Santens
richdef.bsky.social
Every piece of research I have read shows UBI does not impact the working population negatively but rather gives people the option to choose jobs they want to do and have the ability to study to get the qualifications for better jobs.
Reposted by Scott Santens
bfwriter.bsky.social
imagine how much bullshit labor would evaporate if people got UBI. you want me to waste my time doing what? no. I'd rather make music or art or write for free and at least bring a little joy to the world, or help my neighbour out, or read some books, or teach somebody how to do something.
notsaved.bsky.social
my current take is that LLMs are great to automate bullshit labor but do we really need to spend money on automating bullshit labor when we could just do away with it? the eternal question
Reposted by Scott Santens
charliemas.bsky.social
I can't tell you how much it hurts my brain to hear people in their seventies go rabid over the idea of government paid healthcare and become homicidal at the thought of a universal basic income while they enjoy their government paid healthcare and collect their universal basic income.
Reposted by Scott Santens
besshamilton.bsky.social
“I think the federal basic income program could be a nation-building program.”

We've seen study after study showing universal basic income works -- cheaper, more effective than current income programs. Doesn't disincentivize people from working. Reduces crime. Improves health. UBI now.
Ireland is locking down basic income for artists. Could Canada follow suit? | CBC Radio
Ireland has made permanent its three-year pilot program that gave monthly income payments to thousands of artists. Canadian artists are hoping to use that program's success to build momentum for guara...
www.cbc.ca
Reposted by Scott Santens
scottsantens.com
"The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that."

-Karis Nemik, Andor
50501movement.bsky.social
The secret power of a people’s movement is that it’s random.

It’s neighbors protecting immigrants from ICE. It’s millions canceling Disney+. It’s a man throwing a sandwich. It’s inflatable frogs dancing.

Dictators struggle to fight a movement, because they can’t do what they want most—control us.
Reposted by Scott Santens
davidaludwig.bsky.social
Most pleased to be seeing so much more intelligent discussion around Unconditional Universal Basic Income compared to years past.

Here's hoping for the tipping point that makes it happen for the world.
scottsantens.com
I've been researching the idea of Unconditional Universal Basic Income since 2013. Here's a collection of findings I've compiled from various UBI experiments and studies of cash transfer programs around the world.

This will be a VERY LONG and ongoing thread focused entirely on empirical evidence. 🧵
OBSERVED EFFECTS OF UBI

No significant reduction in labor supply (38 studies meta-analysis)

Increased self-employment (301%) and part-time employment (17%)

Slight decrease in alcohol and tobacco use (31 studies meta-analysis)

New mothers extend their maternity leaves

Birth weights improve due to better maternal nutrition

Graduation rates and educational outcomes improve

Hospitalization rates decline (8.5%)

Crime goes down (15%–42%) especially illegal hunting (95%)

Domestic violence decreases (30%–51%)

Trust increases (13% in politicians | 6% in other people)

Home ownership rates increase (17%–26%)

Food security increases as does consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables

Improved cognitive functioning (43%) and personality traits (31%)

Savings go up, debts go down


Source: scottsantens
Reposted by Scott Santens
pedrohalbuquerque.net
Universal basic income is too serious a matter to leave to economists: "the research reveals that #ubi secures daily survival, improves performance of daily occupations, increases care and social engagement, and raises hope through opportunities to choose and plan for the future."
@scottsantens.com
How basic income influences daily occupations: A scoping review
The International Labor Organization forecasts an increase in unemployment and precarious work. These conditions entail occupational injustices through restricting engagement in daily occupations t...
doi.org
scottsantens.com
A small annual UBI has existed in Alaska since 1982. Every year when the payments are sent out to EVERYONE in Alaska, prices fall when businesses all over the state have sales to compete over customers.

In the India UBI pilot, prices went down as new supply greatly surpassed increased demand.
17 Key Variables That Determine UBI’s Inflationary Impact
Will universal basic income cause inflation? Will the prices of everything rise? I get asked that all the time. Here's the deal about UBI and inflation: it all depends. Can UBI be inflationary? Sure,...
www.scottsantens.com
scottsantens.com
Again, once you understand NIT as a UBI with a phaseout tax that isn't considered a tax, you'll see it's cheaper than most people think who don't understand that. And we should have done UBI decades ago to make sure GDP growth was widely shared with everyone, not just concentrated upwards to the 1%.
scottsantens.com
🧵We already knew that the Finland basic income experiment resulted in slightly increased employment, significantly increased trust in people and institutions, and a pro-democracy increase in voting, but now we know it also reduced psychotropic drug use and increased total earned income by about 10%.
scottsantens.com
A NEW study of the Finland basic income experiment just dropped. Turns out psychotropic drug use decreased by 8 %–11 %, and incomes increased on average by 9% to 11% due to people not losing the income when they accepted a job, unlike traditional unemployment.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Abstract

This study provides causal evidence that cash transfer programs have the

potential to alleviate the income-health trap in advanced countries. We analyze

the Finnish basic income experiment, which replaced the minimum

unemployment benefits with a guaranteed income for 2,000 randomly selected

unemployed persons during the years 2017-2018. The guaranteed income

removed all job-search requirements, but participants could still choose to

claim unemployment benefits and comply with related obligations. The

experiment also increased average income by 9%-11%, for two reasons: basic

income payments overlapped with benefits due from the pre-experiment

period, and basic income was not tapered against labor earnings. Using register

data on all prescription medications and secondary care visits, we find that the

experiment reduced psychotropic drug use by 8%-11%. Our results also suggest

a decline in outpatient mental health visits for secondary care. No effects were

detected for other health outcomes. Since most participants opted out of the

unconditionality aspect of the experiment and continued to claim

unemployment benefits, we attribute the observed health effects primarily to

the increased income.
scottsantens.com
The fact we should do stuff we aren't doing doesn't change the fact we should do them and should push for doing them. It's more useful than complaining stuff isn't happening on social media.

And yeah, democracy is falling. A big part of that is lack of UBI. So solve the problem. Be the solution.
scottsantens.com
Any country can do some amount of UBI. Most countries already do subsidies and tax credits of some kind. Most countries already go about welfare in very sub-optimal ways. Would you say a country as you define cannot do a NIT? If yes to NIT and no to UBI, then read this to better understand both.
Negative Income Tax is Not Cheaper Than Universal Basic Income, Nor is Guaranteed Income 'More Progressive' by Excluding the Rich
Many people don't know this, but Milton Friedman was once asked in the Spring of 2000 what he thought about a universal basic income (UBI) in comparison to his proposed negative income tax (NIT) and t...
www.scottsantens.com
Reposted by Scott Santens
elizabethedgett.bsky.social
UBI is seed capital for small business entrepreneurs. It would create a renaissance in small business grass roots startups. The economy would bloom faster than a weed at a fertilizer farm.

Billionaires don't want UBI because it gives workers power to choose. CEOs would have to compete for workers.
scottsantens.com
UBI is absolutely necessary and should have been implemented decades ago.
Reposted by Scott Santens
jennsenn333.bsky.social
If RFK ACTUALLY wanted to do something about mental health and reduce pharmaceutical use in our country he'd push for UBI (or something similar that wasn't gatekept with a catch like food stamps)
scottsantens.com
UBI should be seen as a foundation upon which all public and private jobs and services rest. Healthcare largely treats the lack of UBI. Education slams against the immovable object of lack of UBI. Any amount of UBI is helpful in reducing poverty and insecurity and every dollar of UBI is well spent.