Brian W

Just in NIH grants, It looks like beautiful Iowa City, home of the U of Iowa, will lose $71m in funding. That's almost $1k per resident. And that's before all the other cuts to SSA, FDA, etc.

Anyone in Iowa City that can offer more insight?
scienceimpacts.org
H/T to Prathima !

The Road Not Taken is Guaranteed Minimum Income The dream is incomplete until we share it with our fellow Americans.

Happy to learn that @jeffatwood.bsky.social is pledging $50 million in partnership with @give-directly.bsky.social to provide a guaranteed basic income of $1500/mo for 16 months to 1.800 people in rural areas in WV and NC. It's about time these programs got out of cities and into rural America! #UBI

Based on 2025 poverty guidelines, a universal basic income would need to be set at around $1300/mo per adult and $450/mo per kid to essentially abolish poverty in the US. The net cost of creating such a poverty-ending UBI floor would also end the trillions a year we spend on all effects of poverty.

The math is that if Canada were to spend $3.6 billion more per year to reduce poverty with a guaranteed basic income, they would spend at least $32 billion less on the costs of poverty.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

May the Force Be With UBI The Poverty Death Star Argument for Unconditional Basic Income

Because Star Wars is trending, I just want to remind everyone that poverty is a Death Star and it would be a good thing to blow up with universal basic income.

Four-day work week success in Germany Germany trialled a new four-day work week with great success, as 73% of companies will continue to only work four days out of the week.

Companies in Germany spent a year testing a 4-day work week where hours were reduced by 20% but pay was not. Output remained at 100% or exceeded it. 73% of the companies plan to stick to the new schedule and the remaining 27% plant to tweak it or are still unsure.

euroweeklynews.com/2025/01/12/g...

"For Democrats, this moment presents a golden opportunity—not just to campaign but to lead. Universal Basic Income (UBI) and an automation tax are critical tools for addressing the inequalities AI will exacerbate. Here’s why..."

‘We can’t believe you would just trust us’: why social assistance shouldn’t come with strings attached Recent experiments make the case for a paradigm shift in the provision of social assistance.

"The cash seems to motivate participation in community work, while the community work catalyzes the impact of the cash. We saw this especially in the formation of a labor union among the garbage collectors participating in our experiment in India."

UBI 🤝 unions

theconversation.com/we-cant-beli...

We need universal basic income. We have to at some point come to agree as a society that it's just bullshit to withhold UBI and instead spend more than UBI with worse outcomes. Same logic goes for single payer. We need UBI and M4A and affordable housing. This needs to be the fight. No more bullshit.

Added two more pieces of evidence today that show how good Universal Basic Income is for health and how it can save us a lot of money that's otherwise spent extremely expensively on emergency care instead of much less costly prevention. Think of UBI as a vaccine. www.scottsantens.com/universal-ba...

Wow, I never knew he said this.

Jimmy Carter was ahead of his time—a man of unmatched kindness and integrity. Truly, he was too good for us.

I kept changing my mind which Carter cartoon i should go with. Here's all three.

so if I'm understanding the tech-bro position correctly, it's this

Universal Basic Income saves lives. It is a life-saving policy.

It’s scary as half of MAGA on X scramble to insist that Trump threatening Greenland is just a “joke” while the other half are bending over backward to rationalize why we must “own” and control Greenland. If you ever needed a clearer example of how misinformation breeds cult-like thinking, here it is

"Don’t shy away from talking about an automation tax that funds a Universal Basic income..."

Yes. Embrace UBI. Frame it as an automation dividend. Our data is the capital that trained AI. We deserve to be treated like stockholders. Pay us.

Humble Bundle promo image

Just in time for the holidays, our partners at Humble Bundle have extended the Happy Birthday, Remaster! Bundle! Get everything you need to start playing Pathfinder and support ComicBooks for Kids!

https://buff.ly/3UWSrfL

YouTube video by Scott Santens Lessons from Trump's Re-Election and Potential Silver Linings | The Basic Income Show

Episode 7 of The Basic Income Show is now out. We recorded this one a week after the election, so it's mostly us talking about our takeaways. Towards the end we also discuss some UBI news stuff like a new study of Iran's UBI and USAID embracing cash aid.

youtu.be/oFMErD5r8L4?...

New study out. This one tested quarterly vs biweekly cash. The amount was $500/mo for 2 years (2021-23). 695 people got the money. FT labor didn't decrease. PT did on average. Effects varied by gender. Single mothers worked far more. Men who got it reduced their abuse of women by 36pp. CC debt fell.

We all have a right to die, but we also all have a right to live. No government should help people end their lives without also helping them live lives worth living. No one should end their life because poverty seems like the worse choice. Universal basic income will help everyone say yes to living.

Lots of headlines about how deportations will cause labor shortages and spike food prices.

Lots of stories about how mass deportations will spike food prices and cause inflation. But as Tom Bonier noted, only one published before Election Day...

I try to make it easier to amplify posts in support of Unconditional Universal Basic Income by sharing what I think are the best ones to save you the time. You can help by sharing what I share about UBI. Grow your network too by following those who've shown their support for UBI.

#BasicIncome #UBI

Pathfinder: The Dragon's Demand Experience the magic of digital miniatures in this vast, single-player, turn-based CRPG based on remastered Pathfinder 2E rules!

This game is so close! Help fund it so we can have a cool Pathfinder 2e game! #pathfinder2e @paizo.bsky.social

www.kickstarter.com/projects/oss...

@bskyttrpg.bsky.social stats

Today's a day that we as Americans are reminded of our great abundance. We have defeated scarcity. There's enough food for everyone to eat their fill every day and enough homes for everyone to have a roof. We simply need to better distribute access to abundance. We can with UBI.

I have found it very helpful that if I ever have a question while running a game a quick google search helps a lot. Just type the question with pathfinder 2e and Archive of Nethys should be one of the first and have the answer for you.

A new report just came out in Canada that looked again at the basic income pilot that got canceled early in Ontario.

"Almost every single person we spoke with used basic income in a positive way to improve their lives … [the program] worked precisely as it was meant to."

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

At the Obama Foundation 2023 Democracy Forum, President Obama discussed the impact of automation on the job market, the need for bigger changes, and the pote... Obama's Take on AI: Big Changes Needed, UBI

It's great to see Barack Obama talking about the success of the basic income pilots, and how the income boost and added stability UBI provides actually better enables people to find full-time employment and to afford the risk to start their own businesses.

A Native American woman experiencing homelessness said a Denver basic income program allowed her to ... The program helped one recipient move into an apartment and buy books for school.

Another lived experience story from a UBI pilot. This one is thanks to the Denver Basic Income Pilot and how it got a Native American woman out of a tent and into a home and college.

The woman who's now studying to become a construction project manager said, "I finally had room to breathe."

I have finally made it. Thanks!