The Scott Santens UBI Enterprise

This discussion took place in a Twitter (X) Space on September 6, 2023. I was joined by the co-founders of Comingle - Conrad Shaw and Josh Worth - to discuss the project and universal basic income in general. Comingle is an app being developed to create a small basic income floor for all members. All members will pledge an equal percentage of their income and in return all receive an equal basic income floor of around $50 a week. Help crowdfund Comingle's development: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/comingle Visit Comingle's website: https://www.comingle.us/ Comingle on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Comingle/ For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: ⁠⁠⁠http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq⁠⁠⁠ You can support these podcasts through Anchor or Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠https://patreon.com/scottsantens⁠⁠⁠ Thank you to all my Podcast Executive Producer supporters: Gerald Huff Fund for Humanity, Haroon Mokhtarzada, Matthew Cheney, Katie Moussouris, Tricia Garrett, Zack Sargent, David Ruark, Larry Cohen, Fabian Kehrer, Liya Brook, John Steinberger, Laurel gillespie, Dylan J Hirsch-Shell, Tom Cooper, Judith Bliss, Robert Collins, Daryl Smith, Joanna Zarach, ace bailey, Daragh Ward, Andrew Yang, Bridget I Flynn, Peter T Knight, David Ihnen, Michael Finney, Elizabeth Corker, Gerald Huff, Albert Daniel Brockman, Natalie Foster, Joe Ballou, Chris Rauchle, Arjun , Bram Zeigler, Jason Clark, Chuck Cordes, Thomas Fitzsimmons, Mark Borrington, Leslie Kausch, Jessica Chew, Braden Ferrin , Deanna McHugh, chris heinz, Pavel S, Zachary Weaver, Justin Seifert, Jodi Sarda, Rosa Tran, Ryan Ash-Miller, miki, bradzone, Lee Lor, Akber Khan, John Sullivan, Team TJ, Yang Deng, Yan Xie, Marie janicke, engageSimply - Judy Shapiro, Garry Turner, Tim , Warren J Polk, Jeffrey Emmett, Stephen Castro-Starkey, Kev Roberts, Walter Schaerer, Loren Sickles, anti666, Eric Skiff, Thomas Welsh, Kai Wong, Laura Ashby, and all my other monthly supporters on Patreon too. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scottsantens/support

This is the audio of a speech I gave in July 2023 as the closing keynote for England's Basic Income North 2023 Conference. Video available too: ⁠⁠https://youtu.be/U2XbrVQZLnI For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: ⁠⁠http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq⁠⁠ You can support these podcasts through Anchor or Patreon: ⁠⁠https://patreon.com/scottsantens⁠⁠ Thank you to all my Podcast Executive Producer supporters: Gisele Huff, Haroon Mokhtarzada, Steven Grimm, Matthew Cheney, Camilo Riviere, Katie Moussouris, Tricia Garrett, Zack Sargent, David Ruark, Larry Cohen, Liya Brook, Frederick Weber, John Steinberger, Laurel Gillespie, Dylan J Hirsch-Shell, Tom Cooper, Michael Tinker, Judith Bliss, Robert Collins, Daryl Smith, Joanna Zarach, ace bailey, Daragh Ward, Albert Wenger, Bridget I Flynn, Peter T Knight, David Ihnen, Laura Ashby, and all my other monthly supporters on Patreon too. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scottsantens/support

This episode is a reading of my article, "A.I. Will Not Displace Everyone, Everywhere, All at Once. It Will Rapidly Transform the Labor Market, Exacerbating Inequality, Insecurity, and Poverty." Link to read and share the article: ⁠https://www.scottsantens.com/ai-will-rapidly-transform-the-labor-market-exacerbating-inequality-insecurity-and-poverty/ For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: ⁠http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq⁠ You can support these podcasts through Anchor or Patreon: ⁠https://patreon.com/scottsantens⁠ Thank you to all my Podcast Executive Producer supporters: Gisele Huff, Haroon Mokhtarzada, Steven Grimm, Matthew Cheney, Camilo Riviere, Katie Moussouris, Tricia Garrett, Zack Sargent, David Ruark, Larry Cohen, Liya Brook, Frederick Weber, John Steinberger, Laurel Gillespie, Dylan J Hirsch-Shell, Tom Cooper, Michael Tinker, Judith Bliss, Robert Collins, Daryl Smith, Joanna Zarach, ace bailey, Daragh Ward, Albert Wenger, Bridget I Flynn, Peter T Knight, David Ihnen, Max Henrion, Elizabeth Corker, Gray Scott, Gerald Huff, Albert Daniel Brockman, Michael Honey, Natalie Foster, Joe Ballou, Chris Rauchle, Arjun, Laura Ashby, and all my other monthly supporters on Patreon too. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scottsantens/support

This episode is a reading of my article, "ChatGPT Has Already Decreased My Income Security, and Likely Yours Too", and it is read by an AI I trained on my own voice using Play.HT. It just seemed particularly fitting to do it this way. Link to read and share the article: https://www.scottsantens.com/chatgpt-has-already-decreased-my-income-security/ For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq You can support these podcasts through Anchor or Patreon: https://patreon.com/scottsantens Thank you to all my Podcast Executive Producer supporters: Gisele Huff, Haroon Mokhtarzada, Steven Grimm, Matthew Cheney, Katie Moussouris, Tricia Garrett, Zack Sargent, Larry Cohen, Frederick Weber, CanadayVibes , Kerry Bosworth, Laurel gillespie, Dylan J Hirsch-Shell, Tom Cooper, Michael Tinker, Judith Bliss, Robert Collins, Daryl Smith, Joanna Zarach, ace bailey, Daragh Ward, Albert Wenger, Andrew Yang, Bridget I Flynn, Peter T Knight, David Ihnen, Myles McLane, Max Henrion, Elizabeth Corker, Gray Scott, Gerald Huff, Albert Daniel Brockman, Michael Honey, Natalie Foster, Joe Ballou, Chris Rauchle, Arjun, Laura Ashby, and all my other monthly supporters on Patreon too. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scottsantens/support

On June 24 I took part in a panel about the macroeconomics of basic income at the 2022 BIG Conference in Portland, Oregon. Here is an audio recording of the talk I gave that day where I attempted to zoom out and look at the big picture of money, economics, and humanity. For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq You can support these podcasts through Anchor or Patreon: https://patreon.com/scottsantens Thank you to all my Podcast Executive Producer supporters: Gisele Huff, Haroon Mokhtarzada, Steven Grimm, Katie Moussouris, Tricia Garrett, Zack Sargent, David Ruark, Larry Cohen, Matthew Cheney, Frederick Weber, Patrick Brown, CanadayVibes, Kerry Bosworth, Laurel Gillespie, Dylan J Hirsch-Shell, Tom Cooper, Michael Tinker, Robert Collins, Daryl Smith, Joanna Zarach, Justin Walsh, ace bailey, Daragh Ward, Albert Wenger, Andrew Yang, Bridget I Flynn, Peter T Knight, David Ihnen, and Laura Ashby. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scottsantens/support

On July 26 I took part in a conversation on Twitter Spaces where we talked about UBI for over two hours. A segment of about 21 minutes in length was then edited from the discussion and aired on WPKN radio. Here is that episode as heard on the radio. For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq You can support these podcasts through Anchor or Patreon: https://patreon.com/scottsantens Thank you to all my Podcast Executive Producer supporters: Gisele Huff, Haroon Mokhtarzada, Steven Grimm, Floyd Marinescu, Katie Moussouris, Zack Sargent, Jeff , David Ruark, Larry Cohen, Matthew Cheney, Frederick Weber, Patrick Brown, CanadayVibes , Kerry Bosworth, Laurel gillespie, Dylan J Hirsch-Shell, Tom Cooper, Michael Tinker, Robert Collins, Daryl Smith, Joanna Zarach, Justin Walsh, ace bailey, Daragh Ward, Albert Wenger, Andrew Yang, John Steinberger, Bridget I Flynn, Peter T Knight, David Ihnen, and Laura Ashby. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scottsantens/support

From 2019 to 2021, I took part in a convening on automation, opportunity, and belonging to visualize the future and how to get to a better future among the infinitely possible versions of it. Together we crafted over many iterations a vision document of the kind of society we could be in 2040, and the foundations we would need to build together as a society to achieve it and the updated social contract it will require. At the end of our convening, we all signed on to the vision document we had together created. What I am about to read is the text of that document. You can also read it yourself at socialcontract.fundforhumanity.org. My thanks to all of my fellow participants whose names and bios you can find on the website along with the text of our document. Link to the vision document: https://socialcontract.fundforhumanity.org/vision-and-foundation-for-a-better-society/ For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq You can support these podcasts through Anchor or Patreon: https://patreon.com/scottsantens You can also sign up for my News Flash via scottsantens.news to get an alert by email each time I publish a new podcast episode. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scottsantens/support

This episode is a reading of my long essay (and now also a book titled Let There Be Money) which is an in-depth exploration of Modern Monetary Theory and why MMT advocates should embrace UBI. Listening will provide a wide macroeconomic view at what money is, what actually causes inflation, what taxes actually do, and why we need to think about all of this differently in order to achieve what we can actually physically achieve. The limits of what we can actually do are determined by our actual physical capacity to do it, not by some construct we call money. Link to article: https://vocal.media/theSwamp/why-we-need-modern-monetary-theory-mmt-and-why-it-needs-universal-basic-income-ubi For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq You can support these podcasts through Anchor or Patreon: https://patreon.com/scottsantens You can also sign up for my News Flash via scottsantens.news to get an alert by email each time I publish a new podcast episode. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scottsantens/support

On August 3, 2021, I hopped onto Twitter Spaces to talk in-depth about the concept of universal basic income (UBI). Here is the recording of that discussion I had with the hosts of the Space: Jenny Q. Ta, Aaron Bowley, and Dan Whitfield. Because they are part of the #DogeArmy, this discussion also included my thoughts on cryptocurrencies and also the Fed potentially implementing digital dollars. My thanks to them for recording the discussion and sending it to me so I can post it here for anyone to enjoy who missed it. For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq You can support these podcasts through Anchor or Patreon: https://patreon.com/scottsantens You can also sign up for my News Flash via scottsantens.news to get an alert by email each time I publish a new podcast episode. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scottsantens/support

This one is a straight up, matter of fact, reality-driven argument for UBI. There will always be failure, and so we should plan for that failure, so that when people fail, it isn't life-threatening. It's a resilience argument for fault-tolerant design of our social and economic system. UBI introduces redundancy, graceful failure, and proportional control. This is the engineering argument for UBI: We are all living, breathing, human beings, and we all need money to obtain the food and housing and everything else we need to stay alive. The best way to make sure we all stay alive then, is to make sure we always have a basic amount of money, and the best way to make sure we always have a basic amount of money is to provide it to everyone at all times, so it's always there, no matter what. Any argument to the contrary is not sound from an engineering perspective. Read the article: https://scottsantens.com/engineering-argument-for-unconditional-universal-basic-income-ubi-fault-tolerance-graceful-failure-redundancy For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq You can support these podcasts through Anchor or Patreon: https://patreon.com/scottsantens You can also sign up for my News Flash via scottsantens.news to get an alert by email each time I publish a new podcast episode. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scottsantens/support

I've mentioned this argument in a few podcasts over the years, but I finally got around to writing it up as a new part of my UBI FAQ. This argument is another response to the common claim that people provided UBI will just watch TV and play video games. Instead of the usual response using available behavioral evidence, this instead asks, "What's wrong with that?" How are we to know that someone watching a ton of movies isn't going to be the next Quentin Tarantino? How are we to know that someone spending all their time playing video games isn't going to be the next eSports star? We can't know these things. It's impossible. UBI recognizes that, and better enables people to pursue their passions, which may end up being considered valuable by everyone after all, in retrospect. Read the article: https://scottsantens.com/the-quentin-tarantino-argument-for-universal-basic-income-ubi-people-watch-movies-and-play-video-games For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq You can support these podcasts through Anchor or Patreon: https://patreon.com/scottsantens You can also sign up for my News Flash via scottsantens.news to get an alert by email each time I publish a new podcast episode. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scottsantens/support

Steve Forbes recently came out against UBI in a 3-minute video that was filled to the brim with the standard objections to UBI, including the notion that everyone would stop working (which would hurt the economy and their dignity), which of course was really rich coming from someone really rich, who could have never worked a day in his life, but for some reason still did with his inheritance of the family business. In response I wrote a long thread on Twitter, which I then used as a script for a video response, which I spent a week editing together into a 10-minute video, complete with charts, quotes, references, and a bit of fun for good measure. I suggest watching the video itself, but if you'd just like to listen to the audio instead, here it is. Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3itveUHbQ8 For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq You can support these podcasts through Anchor or Patreon: https://patreon.com/scottsantens You can also sign up for my News Flash via scottsantens.news to get an alert by email each time I publish a new podcast episode. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scottsantens/support

I originally published this article in 2015, and to this day it remains an article I frequently link to in order to help people understand how expensive poverty is, and how much we would save by directly abolishing it with unconditional basic income. Whenever someone makes the claim that UBI is simply too expensive, use what I talk about here and ask in return, "What is the cost of not implementing UBI?" Understand that poverty isn't free, and you will understand the return on investment in abolishing poverty, just like the ROI we experience every day in a world now free of smallpox. Read the article: https://medium.com/basic-income/universal-basic-income-as-the-social-vaccine-of-the-21st-century-d66dff39073 For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq You can support these podcasts through Anchor or Patreon: https://patreon.com/scottsantens You can also sign up for my News Flash via scottsantens.news to get an alert by email each time I publish a new podcast episode. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scottsantens/support

The horror show that is our conditional welfare system remains unknown to most everyone. In 1993, Theresa Funiciello wrote a Pulitzer-nominated book to try to help change that by laying bare the details she learned as a welfare mother herself, and as someone who worked at an organization devoted to helping people in the welfare system. Her book is considered to be one of the most important books on welfare and poverty in America to ever be published, and it concludes with a call for unconditional basic income as the only solution to fix what's broken. In this episode I read the final part of Tyranny of Kindness which focuses on basic income. Theresa gets into the history of the idea and how an income guarantee almost happened under Nixon, and why it was Nixon, and not LBJ who tried to get a guaranteed income through Congress. Why we don't have basic income will make more sense once you listen to this and understand who stands to lose out, and why that would change the political landscape. My thanks also to Jenner Zero of Mind Wave Podcast for the new theme music, which I added for the first time in this episode. Listen to Part 1: https://anchor.fm/scottsantens/episodes/Tyranny-of-Kindness-Chapter-1-e5390l Listen to Part 2: https://anchor.fm/scottsantens/episodes/Tyranny-of-Kindness-Part-2-e9mo54 Watch the Yang Gang Book Club discussion of Tyranny of Kindness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN9kLNaUtbM Buy the book Tyranny of Kindness by Theresa Funiciello: https://amzn.to/2Zfo75s For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq You can support these podcasts through Anchor or Patreon: https://patreon.com/scottsantens You can also sign up for my News Flash via scottsantens.news to get an alert by email each time I publish a new podcast episode. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scottsantens/support

This episode is a reading of my article published on November 11, 2016 about the importance of UBI to attaining freedom for all. Freedom for all would be an achievement only spoken about in rhetoric and hypotheticals. There will never be true freedom from sexual and corporate exploitation and all forms of slavery until freedom is actually granted unconditionally to all, with unconditional basic income. Until UBI, the decisions we make will remain compulsory and without our full consent instead of freely chosen. Read this article: https://medium.com/basic-income/true-freedom-comes-with-basic-income-7ff1368e170 For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq You can support these podcasts through Anchor or Patreon: https://patreon.com/scottsantens You can also sign up for my News Flash via scottsantens.news to get an alert by email each time I publish a new podcast episode. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scottsantens/support

This episode is a reading of my article published on April 8, 2020 that goes into what a terrible idea it is to dump everyone onto the unemployment rolls in response to the coronavirus crisis, how automation means many of those jobs are now permanently gone, and just how many lives are likely to be lost as a result. I consider what Congress is doing as political malpractice. The amount of suffering already happening and that will happen in the weeks, months, and years ahead, is entirely avoidable, but it requires Universal Basic Income. Listen to this episode, and you will understand why. Read this article on Vocal: https://vocal.media/theSwamp/the-future-of-the-united-states-depends-on-the-immediate-adoption-of-ubi For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq You can support these podcasts through Anchor or Patreon: https://patreon.com/scottsantens You can also sign up for my News Flash via scottsantens.news to get an alert by email each time I publish a new podcast episode. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scottsantens/support

The horror show that is our conditional welfare system remains unknown to most everyone. In 1993, Theresa Funiciello wrote a Pulitzer-nominated book to try to help change that by laying bare the details she learned as a welfare mother herself, and as someone who worked at an organization devoted to helping people in the welfare system. Her book is considered to be one of the most important books on welfare and poverty in America to ever be published, and it concludes with a call for unconditional basic income as the only solution to fix what's broken. In this episode I read Chapter 5 of Tyranny of Kindness which explains the title. It examines the rise of the non-profit sector which operates under the guise of alleviating poverty that truthfully exists as a means of reducing taxes, increasing profits, and funding paychecks through the industrialization of poverty. The concept of TSAR is introduced which is "Table Scraps As a Right", where the creation of a "discard market" enables people to feel good about feeding what would otherwise be garbage to the homeless. I think this entire chapter is extremely important to hear to gain a big picture understanding of just how many people benefit from the perpetuation of poverty, and how no one ever listens to those actually in poverty, who if given the choice, would choose money to spend for themselves. Listen to Part 1: https://anchor.fm/scottsantens/episodes/Tyranny-of-Kindness-Chapter-1-e5390l Listen to Part 3: https://anchor.fm/scottsantens/episodes/Tyranny-of-Kindess-Part-3-efu89h Read Tyranny of Kindness by Theresa Funiciello: https://amzn.to/2Zfo75s For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq You can support these podcasts through Anchor or Patreon: https://patreon.com/scottsantens You can also sign up for my News Flash via scottsantens.news to get an alert by email each time I publish a new podcast episode. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scottsantens/support

In 2014, I self-published my first article on Medium that to this day I think remains a solid introduction to UBI. Up until this article, I'd been reading a lot about UBI and engaging in a lot of discussion on Reddit about UBI, but this was my first attempt at "giving back" to the discussion with my own thoughts. It did quite well, getting over 100,000 views and because of its success, I was inspired to keep writing new articles, following it up next with my article about UBI and inflation which was even more widely read and shared. In this first article though you can see a lot of Andrew Yang's UBI: $1,000 per month basic income, 10% VAT, financial transaction taxes, carbon taxes, but most historically, it was this article where I first coined that basic income is not left or right, it's forward. It's because of that I think this particular article may just make it into the history books, seeing that it has gone on to become a central message of Andrew Yang's presidential campaign that is strongly resonating with a growing number of people. Read my article on Medium: https://medium.com/working-life/why-should-we-support-the-idea-of-an-unconditional-basic-income-8a2680c73dd3 For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq You can support these podcasts through Anchor or Patreon: https://patreon.com/scottsantens --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scottsantens/support

The horror show that is our conditional welfare system remains unknown to most everyone. In 1993, Theresa Funiciello wrote a Pulitzer-nominated book to try to help change that by laying bare the details she learned as a welfare mother herself, and as someone who worked at an organization devoted to helping people in the welfare system, and as someone who even became Special Assistant to the Commissioner of New York State's Department of Social Services. Her book is considered to be one of the most important books on welfare and poverty in America to ever be published, and it concludes with a call for unconditional basic income as the only solution to fix what's broken. This episode I devote the hour to reading the first chapter in the hope listeners will better understand why it's so important to replace welfare as we know it with UBI. Listen to Part 2: https://anchor.fm/scottsantens/episodes/Tyranny-of-Kindness-Part-2-e9mo54 Listen to Part 3: https://anchor.fm/scottsantens/episodes/Tyranny-of-Kindess-Part-3-efu89h Read Tyranny of Kindness by Theresa Funiciello: https://amzn.to/2Zfo75s For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq You can support these podcasts through Anchor or Patreon: https://patreon.com/scottsantens You can also sign up for my News Flash via scottsantens.news to get an alert by email each time I publish a new podcast episode. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scottsantens/support

Originally published in 2015, this article was written as an introduction to systems thinking, and how if we look at the United States as a system, we can reform it in systemic ways to function better, not just for some citizens, but for every citizen. I think fellow Andrew Yang supporters will appreciate how almost everything I proposed as a fix made it into Yang's campaign platform, from universal basic income and universal health care, to ranked-choice voting and measuring our success using things that matter to us instead of GDP. Read the article: https://medium.com/basic-income/how-we-can-transform-americas-broken-economic-system-to-work-for-everyone-ddba38fc328a For more info about UBI, please refer to my UBI FAQ: http://scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq You can support these podcasts through Anchor or Patreon: https://patreon.com/scottsantens --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scottsantens/support