by Josh Martin | Jun 2, 2015 | News
Santens discusses the ramifications of self-driving vehicles on the American economy in the next few decades. The technology already exists, likely to reach the market sometime in the 2020s, but the most popular job in most U.S. states belongs to truck drivers. The economic consequences of displacing these truckers with self-driving trucks may lead to serious unemployment problems due to automation. Santens argues that a basic income can help ease the transition into even further technology-driven automation.
Scott Santens, “Self-Driving Trucks Are Going to Hit Us Like a Human-Driven Truck”, Medium, 14 May 2015.
by Josh Martin | May 31, 2015 | News
Santens uses John Oliver’s segment on the lack of paid parental leave legislation in the U.S. to highlight how basic income can effectively serve the same purpose as parental leave legislation and how it helps mothers of newborn children. By using the negative income experiments of the 1970s in the U.S. and Canada, Santens argues that the worst-case reduction in hours worked by mothers would be about 10 weeks of time off from work to care for the new child, but these 10 weeks would be voluntarily taken off and would still be less time off than parents in other countries have.
Scott Santens, “Basic Income as Paid Parental Leave”, 11 May 2015.
by Josh Martin | May 28, 2015 | News
This article highlights the gross misappropriation of federal antipoverty funding in the United States through the welfare program Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, known as TANF. A large proportion of the TANF block grants given to states are used for other state programs instead of alleviating poverty. This misuse of antipoverty funding would not occur under a basic income, since there would be no bureaucratic middleman to withhold antipoverty funds from the poor.
Scott Santens, “TANF is Terrible”, 1 April 2015.
by Jessica Verheij | May 18, 2015 | News
Scott Santens links John Oliver’s interview with Edward Snowden to the discussion around UBI. The advance of technology and automation is making the need for a public discussion around government surveillance more and more urgent, and this goes the same way for a serious debate on a basic income guarantee. Both conversations need to be reframed in order to make everyone understand how vital these topics are for each and every one of us.
Scott Santens, “John Oliver, Edward Snowden, and Unconditional Basic Income“, Medium, April 7 2015
by Toby | Apr 11, 2015 | News
Scott Santens, “Basic Income is Impossible (And so were all of these other ideas)“, 2015 January 07
