Tom Pogson

Two hikers hiking along a mountian trail with a beautiful valley to their left. Caption: People tend to get caught up in the amount of money, but UBI goes deeper than money. Money, and the amount of money, is the least important aspect of UBI. It’s just the vehicle for what’s being expressed, which is trust. Scott Santens

The key to basic income has always been the unconditionality.

It is what is groundbreaking. This is more than robots and poverty. It is saying we value you, we trust you, we will invest in you as a member of our community.

BREAKING🍁: 2025 Report of the National Advisory Council on Poverty recommends a basic income floor to ensure everyone reaches at least the poverty line

This is pretty reasonable.

By New Progress on Twitter Fear is the mind killer Universal Basic Income is the fear killer

😂

My problem with free food. The idea of food being a human right I absolutely agree with. So, what’s my problem anyways? First off I need to say that this was absolutely prompted by the current terrible situation with S…

1: Snap needs to be reinstated immediately.
2.People need enough money to not only access food but the food they specifically want and need.
basicbc.wordpress.com/2025/11/03/m...

Basic income is affordable without taxing each other. Its a question of what we value and if we can learn to trust each other up front.

dividend (UBI) and minimum income (GLI) mixed approach could better address this. After all, dont we often say "its not a panacea."? With this mixed approach, strong public assets and services we can create a solid floor making poverty impossible while investing in the future from our shared effort.

This brings me to the one concern I have with the sort of "calibrated basic income" model of slowly growing it. Here in Canada the Canada Disability Benefit is being potentially clawed back by Provinces. The idea of this is to make noone worse off. Having the

All four refer to their work as basic income. Its then within there work you see the difference between these two policies and their frameworks. We can debate but I would also add how Peter Barnes combines the two concepts in "With Liberty and Dividends for All".

@uvic.ca here did a course on the subject I could see it, likewise calling an introductory course Basic Income Studies 100 which would include work by both Guy Standing and Karl Widerquist as well as Evelyn Forget and the late Hugh Segal. None of these four names should be absent.

"dividend versions" of UBI when thats what it already is. Having 1000 different rules from 1000 different people doesnt help us.

There is already the Frieberg Institute of Basic Income studies. Its a good example of what Im saying on the face of it.

If, for instance

I have the highest respect for and that I am coming at this from a Canadian perspective but from a Canadian perspective it is blatantly clear that the rules of these things, especially with now people on this platform (and therefore elsewhere likely) trying to make "new"

obstructively difficult to tell different organizations and writers to withdraw their works. We also share many notes between concepts (8.5% reduction in health costs...Mincome/shops lower prices...Alaska PFD).

I know this will not be instantly agreed with by people

-Guaranteed Income which is a form of negative income tax or guaranteed income, reforming the incentives and bureaucracy of the welfare state that was built for a world that no longer exists.

Both are already calling themselves this and decoupling that would be

had written a book about it."

In that spirit my only contesting point is that I think (as this is just an opinion) that the name "Basic Income" should be used as the overall subject. Within that are:
-Universal basic income which is the idea of a dividend share of what we own.

It was originally different academics who had independently come to this same realization coming together to discuss and share papers back and forth. Like former chair (who Floyd mentions) Karl Widerquist said "in the eighties and nineties everyone who was into basic income

YouTube video by UBI Works Guaranteed Basic Income VS UBI | Floyd Marinescu

My hot take:
Basic Income is the subject name.
The movement for basic income isnt a monolith as we often have different opinions. In fact it sort of was that that created what was initially the Basic Income European Network that became the Basic Income Earth Network in 2004.
youtu.be/mR1bKB2MphY?...

Jerome Powell says the AI hiring apocalypse is real: 'Job creation is pretty close to zero.’ | Fortune Powell said the Fed is walking a tightrope as AI-fueled investment props up growth but erodes hiring.

Whether you think it's bullshit or not that companies are using AI to not hire people, the impacts on the economy point to a need to stimulate demand soon. For J-Pow that likely means lower interest rates, but that can only go so far. We need to start seriously talking about at least a small UBI.

The Netherlands May Become the First Country With a Universal Basic Income D66's Dutch election win was fueled by a universal basic income plan, backed by trials showing removing work rules boosts well-being without hurting employment

New on my Substack about how the election that just happened in the Netherlands may soon result in the Dutch attaining first place in the race for Universal Basic Income. What happened and why did it happen? Give it a read!

The Zombification of Intellectual Property and the Tool That Could Finally Reform It How IP-Funded Basic Income Could Enrich the Public Domain You know what a zombie is, right? Do you know why you know? You know because of a mistake that threw Night of the Living Dead freely into ...

www.scottsantens.com/zombificatio...

Did you know that the movement of zombie movies came from a copyright mistake?

There are, in every country, some magnificent charities established by individuals. It is, however, but little that any individual can do, when the whole extent of the misery to be relieved is considered. He may satisfy his conscience, but not his heart. He may give all that he has, and that all will relieve but little. It is only by organizing civilization upon such principles as to act like a system of pulleys, that the whole weight of misery can be removed. Thomas Paine Agrarian Justice (1795–1796)

BBI #100: Intro to UBI YouTube video by Boston Basic Income

Longer talk from the BBI channel. There is, as he said once, so much here you'd never want to get to the end:
www.youtube.com/live/Row0Opt...

YouTube video by The Greshm Institute Calibrated UBI Maximizes Prosperity

One different approach to UBI is from Alex Howlett of the Greshm Institute and Boston Basic Income projects.

youtube.com/shorts/_NHzU...

YouTube video by UBIVisuals Sandhya Anantharaman | The future of work is about US

Basic income isnt a substitute. It is a platform that can open up a wider array of options. For pwd it can be the base with a proper additional subsidy on top. It doesn't solve every problem but makes every problem easier to solve.
youtu.be/aqRAXtLaRyI?...

Note: Food Banks Canada and the Canadian Association of Social Workers have long supported a basic income for Canadians. Structural changes have all been downloaded to municipalities that can only react as things continue.

Abso-fucking-lutey.👇🏿

All these Band-Aids, put the onus on people living in poverty to find a way.
They are excuses for not doing what’s right

There is only one real solution. UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME!

Tax Musk & Bezos half their personal wealth and your 1/2 funded. Add in the rest of the 1%-Bingo!

Start Here ▶️ - YouTube Want to dip your toe in the subject of Basic Income, UBI, Guaranteed Income, ect? Not as daunting as the full "Recommended Viewing" from the 4000+ Playlist L...

Let's get started.

youtube.com/playlist?lis...

People aren't poor because they're bad with money. They're poor because everything costs more than they're paid.

Ask yourself this simple question:

How would society be doing if people across the board weren't making enough? If even the federal poverty line was artificially too low?

Yep. Now look outside.

"Yeah, but who's going to pay for it?" Alan Watts answers the BIG question

From his 1960s talk "Money, Guilt and the Machine"

www.scottsantens.com/yeah-but-who...