I'm the first and so far only person in the world purposefully living with a crowdfunded monthly basic income.
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Greetings, everyone. I joined Steemit 11 months ago after learning about it on Reddit where I moderate the /r/basicincome subreddit, but only posted my first post here 12 days ago. Sorry for taking so long. Believe it or not, the idea of getting paid to post here was a turnoff, not a draw for me, but before I explain my reasoning, let me tell you a bit about myself and my work...
A bit about me
Back in 2013, a discussion hit the front page of Reddit about how most people have no fucking clue how quickly technology is advancing now. This was before the 2013 Oxford study came out about how 47% of US jobs are likely to be automated out of existence "in the next decade or two." Despite thinking I was somewhat on top of technology, I was surprised to learn how self-driving trucks were already driving ore from point A to point B in Rio Tinto mines in 2013, with the full intention of 100% automation of trucks by 2020. How many of you reading this right now knew that? How many of you knew that only two years later in 2015, Rio Tinto already hit 100% automation of trucks in two mines? Or that Suncor is looking to replace 800 truck drivers by 2020 (80% of all their drivers) who happen to currently be earning $200,000 per year, largely because they earn $200,000 per year? Or that in the US, self-driving trucks are already on the roads, and that the first commercial delivery has even already been made (and it was beer)?
Now ask yourselves how many politicians knew all of the above back in 2013? How many members of Congress even right now are talking about how quickly technology is advancing, and how we need to get our shit together to make sure massive unemployment and the collapse of the economy via loss of aggregate demand via loss of consumer buying power isn't a direct result of automation? It was this that got me looking into solutions, and in doing so, I came across the book "Manna" by Marshall Brain. If you haven't read this book, click the link and read that shit. It is spot-on and makes a compelling argument that we're looking at a fork in the road up ahead, where we can either choose dystopia or utopia. Things can be a lot worse, and or they can be a lot better, but the status quo is not going to continue. What happens in the years ahead is entirely up to us.
In my search for answers, I came across the idea of basic income, and in researching that idea, my entire life began a different path. I subscribed to the basic income subreddit when it had a few hundred subscribers, and was soon welcomed to become one of its moderators. Pretty much every day since then, I've read articles about basic income and posted them there. The community now has over 40,000 subscribers, and I've personally read thousands of articles/papers directly about UBI or indirectly related to it in the process.
After doing so much reading and research, I reached a point in 2014 where I decided I needed to start contributing to the discussion with my own writing to help expand, deepen, and popularize the discussion in a way everyone could understand as opposed to what was still mostly academic at the time. So in June of 2014, I published my first article about basic income on Medium, and it was one of the most popular on all of Medium that month. Its success helped give me the confidence to keep writing on Medium (where I now have over 20,000 followers), and to also start my own blog.
My next major turning point was with the publication of my article about self-driving trucks and basic income, which went even more viral than my first article. I suddenly found myself being asked to do interviews on the radio and elsewhere and was invited to begin publishing my articles to The Huffington Post. It was also translated into multiple languages and republished in quite a few places, including college course packets.
Before long I also found myself getting asked to give talks about basic income and to be part of panels at conferences. Public speaking was never a goal of mine, and yet here I am now being asked to travel not only across the US but also around the world to talk about basic income. I spoke at the First World Summit on Technological Unemployment, have spoken at dozens of events since, and will give my first keynote speech in Sweden later this year to an audience of around 2,000 people.
In late 2014 I got the idea to use Patreon to crowdfund a basic income of $1,000 per month to enable me to focus full-time on advancing the idea in the public consciousness. Unlike everyone else on Patreon, I would reach $1,000 and then pledge anything earned over that amount to others making the same pledge. I named it The BIG Patreon Creator Pledge. It took all of 2015 to achieve, but starting in January of 2016, I began receiving $1,000 per month in crowdfunded basic income. It's an income floor. Nothing prevents me from earning any amount of income on top of it, and in fact having a basic income means I'm more able to earn additional income because it functions as capital and bargaining power. By capital, I mean it takes money to make money, and by having money, I'm able to use that on things like marketing tools. By bargaining power, I mean I'm able to refuse people asking permission to publish something of mine for free, and instead ask for a fee to do so, or to refuse to write something for someone unless the pay and/or terms are sufficient.
That last part is a huge element of basic income that people don't see on first look, but I feel by having it. Basic income is the power to say "No" made possible by unconditional economic security. This really is about security. The fact I know I will start the 1st of each month with $1,000 instead of $0 means that I can say no to people I might not otherwise say no to, and it allows me to bargain where I might not have otherwise bargained. And it even enables me to work for free which has long been a luxury of the rich. It shouldn't be a luxury. Unpaid work should be a choice everyone should be able to pursue without worrying about survival as a direct result. If you'd like to read more of what I've learned, here's a piece I wrote for Vox, and one I wrote for Business Insider about my perspective on basic income thanks to having one.
In 2016, I wrote my most successful article yet. It was in response to the victory of AlphaGo, which I argued is a clear signal that we've gone from linear to parabolic in our technological advances. It was supposed to be impossible for an AI to defeat the best Go players in the world, and if possible at all, not for another decade. Everyone who thought that was wrong. I fully expect more achievements to absolutely shock people, including those in the fields working on them.
Here in 2017, I've been given a $29,000 grant by the Economic Security Project (co-founded by a co-founder of Facebook) to assist me in my research, writing, organizing, traveling, and speaking about basic income. I've also co-founded USBIG, Inc., a 501c3 created to advance the discussion of basic income in the US, where I serve on its board of directors. There's also a book out there now, with a chapter I wrote for it.
It's been four years since I first read about basic income, and in that time it's gone from something very few people even heard of, to an idea that has been endorsed by Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, The Movement for Black Lives, multiple Nobel-prize winning economists, entire think tanks like the RSA and the Niskanen Center, the co-founders of both the Tea Party and the Coffee Party, and celebrities like Penn Jillette and Joe Rogan. In fact, (here's a database I maintain of almost 300 UBI supporters you may know but may not know support UBI).
We've got a long way to go, but with places like Hawaii already looking to do something at the state level, and with experiments like Y-Combinator's already up and running in the US, and with experiments like Finland's and Canada's popping up internationally, as well as Give Directly's in Kenya, I feel confident we can achieve a basic income guarantee in the US before it's too late, which I think is somewhere around 2025 or so, at which point technology will be advanced enough and affordable enough to make a great deal of human labor unable to compete against machine labor, and most consumers no longer able to consume anything but what they need to get by.
Yes, technology makes stuff cheaper, but not all the stuff, and demand will continue to decline as discretionary income continues to decline. The collapse of demand is unavoidable without the creation of purchasing power, and thus the creation of customers. We can't have a consumer economy built on a base of consumers only able to purchase their basic needs and little else. On the other hand, if everyone started each month with enough to cover their basic needs, then just think of the discretionary income boost and what that would mean for the entire economy. If you're a business owner, this alone should make you want to support basic income - more paying customers.
Let's talk Steemit now
With all that said, I think Steemit represents an important step in the direction we need to go. All of us are increasingly global citizens within online networks. We're netizens. As netizens, we are the nodes within networked systems creating all the value of the networks. Think Facebook. If one were to copy Facebook and just change the name, but no one used it, how much value would it have? Nothing. Zero. A network with no users is worthless. So here we are creating all this value in our status updates on Facebook, but we don't see it as work, even though it is. It's work that's been atomized. An hour of hard work is easier to see as work. A few seconds creating a status update for fun is harder to see as work, but it is. And when that work is combined with the work of billions of others in a constant stream, there is a HUGE amount of value. The problem is that outside of rare exceptions like Steemit, it's all going to the few who created and maintain the network infrastructure instead of the network nodes comprising the network.
I therefore argue for the need of netizen dividends. Netizens should be compensated for the value they create. The trick is how to best go about that. Unconditional basic income recognizes this value by recognizing the value of all unpaid work everywhere, online and offline. Steemit is attempting this on one online platform, and that's exciting, but having observed it over the past year, and because of having a basic income, I think some adjustments need to be made to preserve/improve desired incentives. I also think that without even any changes, Steemit would be vastly improved if everyone on Steemit had a basic income independent of Steemit. Let me explain.
Human motivation is something most people misunderstand and have not studied. I think we assume that the natural state of humans is laziness, and that money is this great way of getting humans who would otherwise do nothing, to do something. This is extrinsic motivational thinking in action, and it is indeed a great way to get people to do tasks that people don't want to do, and are physical or routine in nature. But, and here's the rub, money as an extrinsic motivator can destroy motivation and also hinder creative thinking. Intrinsic motivation is far more powerful.
The power to say no is also key in this. Are you truly choosing to do something voluntarily if the option to not do it doesn't exist? In an experiment that looked at the option to decline, one group was given a choice to do one of two tasks, and the other was given the same two choices but also a third, to do nothing. The result? People spent 5 minutes on the tasks when they were not given the choice to do nothing, and 7 minutes when given the choice to do noting. If you do something because you want to do it, and it's fully voluntary, there's no beating that.
Another interesting example to consider is something in Israel that's like Halloween in the US, but instead of candy, it's charity. Kids go around collecting support for charities. A study took three groups of kids and tried different motivators. One group was given a small amount of money per success. One group was given ten times that amount per success. The third group was given nothing except an explanation beforehand that what they were doing was important to society. Can you guess who did best? It wasn't the group that was paid the most. It was the group that got nothing except for the knowledge that what they were doing was important.
Apply this to Steemit. Look at the posts here. Look at how people interact with each other. My perception is that a lot of what's posted here is in the pursuit of money. I don't perceive this at all on Reddit. I don't even know if it's true here, but the perception feels true, and that alters the experience. I expect someone to comment on this post, but because I know there's the potential you could earn money for it, I don't know for sure if you're commenting for the money or because you really wish to say something. It could also be both. It's also why there are so many bots.
I also get the distinct impression that despite this place being seen as a haven for free speech, speech isn't entirely free due to the combination of monetization and lack of basic income. What I mean by that is when you need money to live, and you can earn money for commenting here, free speech is infringed through the fear of not earning money that could have been earned, or even getting downvoted by someone with a lot of Steem power. Did you watch that episode of Black Mirror that involved the wedding? It feels kind of like that, with people being afraid to tell people to fuck off. Just as work isn't truly voluntary without the option to say "No!", free speech isn't truly free without the option to say "Fuck you!"
Now, if I knew that you and everyone else here had a basic income, then I would know that no one on Steemit is posting anything out of their need to survive, or withholding from posting something out of fear/worry. I think that would help cut down on people purely posting for money, bot creation, and also people coming off as fake in their responses. The quality of posts and comments would likely go up with the removal of posts and comments made purely in the hope of monetary reward. But at the same time, Steemit would still be operating on extrinsic rewards, which again is problematic. Imagine if Wikipedia paid people for posts and edits. Do you think the quality would be better or worse? I think worse. But what if the connection between post and income could be partially decoupled? What if Steemit involved something more like a true netizen dividend?
I think one possible way of going about that would be a percentage of Steem from every post and every comment going to the entire Steemit community as a flat dividend. Instead of 75% going to the poster and 25% going to the upvoters, it could be something like 70% to the poster, 20% to the upvoters, and 10% divided between all accounts on Steemit. Another option would be 70% to the reward pool, 10% going to STEEM power holders, and 10% going to all Steemit accounts. Either way there would be a stream of revenue entirely decoupled from actions that would better reward what isn't rewarded.
An example of something not rewarded is a post or comment that inspires a post or a comment. There is value being generated here on Steemit not being rewarded, even with the existence of rewards. It's a recognition problem that's impossible to calculate. Personally, I am massively thankful to the Reddit community. What I've read there, what I've learned, the discussions I've had, it's all responsible for helping me get where I am today. I would not be where I am without Reddit, but none of that value is recognized, nor could I ever recognize it. I don't know exactly where I got ideas to write about. That's not how ideas work. We influence each other in all kinds of ways. Everything is a remix. We kid ourselves into thinking we're all "original" in our ideas.
For the same reasons I so strongly support basic income simply for being a citizen, I think that if people here earned Steem for just being on Steemit, posts and comments would be less extrinsically motivated and a bit more intrinsically motivated. In my opinion a better balance should be sought, where people are rewarded for their work, but there's more work that's recognized as adding value to the whole, and there's an overall shift from quantity to quality.
In the pursuit of any attempt to divide a population into the deserving and the undeserving, we must face the reality of two error types. A Type I error is an error of inclusion, a false positive. This is giving something to someone we don't think deserves it. A Type II error is an error of exclusion, a false negative. This is not giving something to someone we do think deserves it. The question is which is more important. Is it more important to make sure someone who doesn't deserve Steem doesn't get it? Or is it more important to make sure someone who does deserve Steem gets it who otherwise wouldn't without the application of universality? Apply the same logic to money in society.
But again, even without any of my proposed payout structure changes, I think what's being done here on Steemit is important, and I think it's important this place succeeds, so I plan to start cross-posting my blogs here and in so doing, doing what I can to get more people becoming active participants of the Steemit community.
I think it's imperative for a network that rewards its users to become large enough that it threatens other networks. If this can be achieved, those other networks may feel inclined to start rewarding their own users so as to not lose them to competitors that do. This could lead to a potential tipping point from the old model of providing nothing to those who comprise networks, to a new model where all networks must provide a share of value to all users. In a world where AI is automating jobs, this could be the way of making sure technology works for everyone instead of only the few.
With that said, I guess that ends my intro post. I hope it's been informative and perhaps even thought-provoking. My thanks to you for taking the time to read it, and my thanks to the creators of Steemit for creating a platform that recognizes where the value of a platform arises from - those who comprise it.
One final note
I have a new puppy. He's a Long Coat Chihuahua. His name is Titus Sanchez. I was going to go with Rick Sanchez or Schwifty (because shit on the floor), but my girlfriend loves Titus Andromedon, so we combined them. You can find more photos of him on my Instagram.
Welcome to steem nation
nice brother
Wow, this post is so amazing I am not even sure where to start. I will try my best to organize all my thoughts.
I have heard about this idea from someone in Europe who was doing this too. He was saying that once he was able to have a guaranteed 1,000$ a month, that was when he was really able to start truly creating what he wanted for the first time in his life.
At some point when I was growing up, I gained the idea that money would solve problems. Every since then I have been conflicted creating and doing what I want Vs. making a lot of money to have the power to solve any problem that could happen.
I now know that this is a false truth that I have, but at the same time it is hard to change that within me. Through out my day to day life I am constantly distracted between what I want to create and what will make me money.
Which then ends up with me doing very little to nothing with my time.
When I first discovered about steemit I saw this as a way of accomplishing both. It helped motivate me to start creating again because of the monetary reward that came with it; I felt like I was fulfilling both my needs, instead of having to sacrifice one for the other.
Its has helped me grow with the focus of creating and making money. Yet lately I feel lost. I no longer know if what I am creating is good or if it is what I want to create. Mostly because I am letting other people decided the value of what I create for me based on what they judge the reward value should be.
I feel there is a lot of programming through propaganda to create these Ideas to make good workers. Like the phrase "what do you do for a living"? People who are desperate are easier to control. I feel education has been institutionalized to train and create good little worker with the right skills.
I fully believe basic income to be the answer. Although since the government(s) is running on a centralized debt system that fund something that is inherently evil, I do not know if it is a good idea for it to be generate through them.
Thank you for inspiring me with this post. It is now my goal to gain a passive income of 1,000$ a month which will serve as my basic income. I think this might solve my problem of not being able to focus my energy & attention on things were money is not present. Giving me the ability to say "no" or "fuck you" when I need to focus on what I want instead ^_^
Thank you, and I have to say your sentence right here is a key understanding:
"I am letting other people decide the value of what I create for me based on what they judge the reward value should be."
Those who believe markets are "perfect magical calculators" are taking a good idea, which is the concept of a market, and putting it on a pedestal it does not belong on. Yes, markets can indeed put a price on things, and in so doing function incredibly to leverage scarce resources to maximum effect in certain cases, but in other cases, markets can also fail miserably at determining value.
I think a prime example is any well-known artist who only became well-known after death, and died poor. A single painting that sells for $1 million dollars apparently reflects the art itself as a work of genius, but the work itself didn't change. It's the same piece of work that the artist couldn't sell during their lifetime, or sold for like $5 perhaps.
Now imagine the person who sells such a painting. Perhaps someone who buys a painting for $500,000 and sells it later for $1 million... did they add $500,000 in value to the painting? Compare this $500,000 as being perhaps 10 times more than the artist who painted it earned off their painting during their entire lifetime. Is the act of selling on their painting more valuable than the act of creating that painting and every other painting that artist ever created? Of course not! But there are definitely those who will conclude that based on the numbers.
We do not at all value extremely important work sufficiently. Did you know 1/3 of Americans are putting in 1.2 billion hours per week of unpaid care work? It's value if paid is estimated as being about $700 billion per year, or 5% of GDP that's missing from GDP, if it were calculated into it.
Why is that work not considered work, and therefore not even valuable, when the same work that does get paid is considered as valuable?
Here's another question. Imagine a small community of five houses, each with one parent, each with one kid, where each parent pays one of the parents for daycare so they can work doing daycare for another parent. Economists would consider this as full employment. Every one has a job, and that job is adding to GDP. Now what if each parent stayed home and raised their own kid? This would be example of full unemployment, with nothing added to GDP, and yet the nature of the work and the time involved is exactly the same. But which example is most likely to lead to better adults decades later? The one where everyone was raised by someone else other than their parent? Or the one where everyone was raised by their parent?
I think society needs to look in the mirror and recognize what isn't being recognized, and redefine what it considers to be work, and what it values. I also think that forcing people to work with the threat of poverty looming over everyone, and even dragging and keeping people down in poverty, is preventing a great deal of work from being done and value being created.
Imagine if only one new Einstein is out there working three dead-end jobs 70 hours per week in the hopes of preventing their family from living in poverty or trying to get them out of it if they're in it... how do we calculate that loss of value to society? How do we even calculate what value Einstein himself added to society?
Once we start thinking about how poorly we judge value, and how much value is being hindered and prevented by a system not built on Level 3 of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs instead of Level 0, it's hard not to see the immediate need for implementing basic income.
Agreed. Time & wisdom & experience & skills and resources and many things are so valuable. Determining the level of value something or someone has is a tough thing to do. Facebook stole from people so much.
This sort of is one of the questions I have re GBI and that is who gets to make the decision to stay home or not?
I don't doubt that there will be a paradigm shift needed, it's just who is the one that's going to make decisions. If it is each individual without strings attached, sign me up.
SDG
It's no different from now, it's just that the incentives (both tangible and intangible) will be rearranged a bit. I could ask the same question about the current system: Who gets to make the decision to stay home or not? The individual does, of course. They weigh up the pros and cons and incentives and disincentives and make an informed choice (if they're lucky). And not to forget that the more precarious your existence is, the less real choice you have in the employment (and otherwise) marketplace. Giving everyone a liveable minimum wage means that people are actually freer to make real choices about how they allocate their time and resources.
I'm sorry, but $1,000/month is not a "liveable" wage in San Fransico, California - although it might be in rural Nebraska. Placing an artificial, sub-poverty income limit on all people is not "freedom," it's just a softer form of slavery than we have right now, but it is slavery nonetheless.
Basic income is not meant to be a complete replacement for income. Tell me if, for those working in San Francisco, a $12,000/yr or $1,000/mo increase in their after tax income would make a difference in their lives?
As far as cost of living differences, Scott address that concern in one of his articles.
I studied at home. My mother taught me. It helped. I wish my mom had Steemit 30 years ago.
Yes, it is an easy trap to fall into; Since so many things can be bought with money, it creates a reality where those with the most money can manipulate that reality to the desires (even if it sacrifices someone else).
Yes, van gogh was a huge victim of this exact thing. Think how he would be if he received the support & acknowledgement now when he was actually alive
Yeah, it is weird how the ability to buy low and sell high is the one that is valued most in the society. But at the same time it adds no particular value to society, yet those are the ones running a high percentage of the market.
Yeah, there needs to be more recognition on supporting caregiver or raising kids. But who will provide that? Right now it seems that the government are controlled by people who love to focus the budget on war?
Even better example than Einstein is Tesla. He was broke most of his life and still created so many practical things yet his innovation was constantly stifled by his money backers focusing more on money that innovation.
Yeah I definitely see the need but I don't know how to make that happen. A lot of us don't even know where to begin getting a basic or passive income.
We love you @BallinConscious. Quite possibly the most interesting guy on Steemit!
Nice to see you on steemit :D have a great time.
@ScottSantens welcome to Steemit. I have seen your work across the web going back some time. I do believe Basic Income will be a part of life in the near future. I leave figuring it out to the economists.
For me I abide by Pareto's Principle in everything I do. Whether it is here on Steemit or in my business. I recognize that some will and some won't and the ones who won't will far outnumber the ones that will.
I do like the idea of giving a portion of awards to everyone but I would add a caveat, "they would have to be active at some level".
So I am going to leave you with an adorable gif and upvote myself at 100% just like I did your post. I also resteemed your post.
Thanks! I see nothing wrong with the caveat of some level of activity being required for a netizen dividend of any kind. I would compare that to the requirement of a pulse besides citizenship for an unconditional basic income. ;)
Question as a newbie here: what is the reasoning behind upvoting our own comments?
I am still not too sure how this all works exactly so hopefully someone else can explain it more accurately. From what i understand if you are the first to upvote and the post becomes popular you receive a higher proportion of the curator rewards than you would otherwise by being amongst the first to promote the post to others.
Welcome to Steemit!
Welcome to the community.
Welcome to steemit @scotsantens. Thanks for educating people on these changes affecting humanity as we speak.
In addition to basic universal income, I am hoping that there is more education on creating passive income via business and side hustles.
Welcome to STEEMIT, @scottsantens! Just out of curiosity, I was wondering how you came up with the $1000/month figure, because a few months back, @maryfavour was writing how the $10,000 she earned on STEEMIT was life-changing for her, and that she is now considered a "millionaire" in her country of Nigeria: "STEEMIT HAS MADE ME A MILLIONAIRE"! So at some level, the "correct", useful amount becomes rather subjective and arbitrary.
Furthermore, if everyone in the U.S. alone was given a "basic income" of $12,000 per year, multiplied by 326,474,013 (the 2017 estimated U.S. population), the price tag comes to near 4 TRILLION DOLLARS per YEAR, or over 20% of annual GDP!
And while it may seem like a very noble idea at first glance, my years of market experience suggest we'd see a rapid repricing of literally everything, to the point that the new "basic income" required would quickly rise exponentially.
A few months back, there was a bunch of thought-provoking discussion on this subject in the comment-section of the following post. It'd be interesting to hear your counter-arguments to some of the points brought up over there: "Universal Basic Income is our future, at least according to Mark Zuckerberg".
The $1,000/mo figure comes from the fact I live in the US, and $12,000 is the defined poverty line here. The amount will vary nation by nation depending on what is considered the poverty line in each nation.
I've recently written actually about how to calculate the actual cost of basic income, and even posted it here on Steemit as my first post. You can also find it on the World Economic Forum. Please read it to understand how you're doing it wrong by calculating the number of people by the amount. It's a bit more complex than that.
As for rising prices as a direct result of UBI, that too is a common misunderstanding based on an oversimplification and lack of study. It was one of the first things I ever wrote about UBI in great depth. Please read it in full to get a better hold of all the variables involved, as well as the applicable evidence to apply to the concern.
As for my counter-arguments to common arguments, please see my FAQ. There's a lot there to read but many people ask the same questions and have the same misconceptions.
You're sort of helping me make my point. From my perspective, everything is much more complex than what it seems you're outlining in some of your articles. Everything is a moving target. For example, you wrote "groceries might end up costing you an extra 1.4% per month", based on the following video about what would happen if Walmart paid a "living wage":
But, fast forward a year and a half later, and we got this instead:
Link: Wal-Mart Lost $21 Billion Wednesday: What Really Happened?
But what's a few extra billion here and there among friends?! ;) Also sounds like taxpayers may have lost quite a bit more in tax revenue than they "saved" from this particular "debacle" as well.
Regarding inflation, the main reason all the Fed Q.E. really didn't work is because all the money they "printed" was not only hoarded by banks, but it still didn't make up for all the money that "evaporated" in the debt bubble collapse. Martin Armstrong has generally been one of the few who's gotten much of this correct. And he's also been right in that inflation shows up as interest rates rise, not when rates fall (as most mainstream news sources often claim)...
Link: Armstrong Economics: The Three Faces of Inflation
Link: Armstrong Economics: The Fed & Interest Rates: The Nightmare That Will Not End Nicely
Regarding Milton Friedman, I've seen that interview a few times and generally agree with what he says. However, he's also making the point that if you're going to have welfare, with all its double-thinking "conditions", and all the additional middle-men and overhead, why not take that money and give it directly to the people instead, where it can do the most good. In 2009, if the bailout money had gone more directly to the people as opposed to the bankers, it may have also had a much greater effect as well.
Finally, I'm always fascinated by how much more "bang for the buck" I seem to extract versus others who seem less able to "afford it" in the first place. As such, I'm intrigued by how some countries such as India are able to perform cataract surgery for $25 per patient versus $1000's of dollars in the West. Perhaps if we could find a way to bring more such competitive "price advantages" to Western cultures, it may go a long way in addressing some of these bigger issues.
I am a crypto-enthusiast who came from reddit too. I was a moderator for couple of early stage cryptocurrencies. Welcome here :)
I liked the idea. The blockchain tech is coming out of age. In near future, it is quite possible to implement a sort of UBI through blockchain. Other tech such as finger-tip id (Qualcomm's fingerprint sensor) with smartphone can help to reduce false identity. Grantcoin is a small step towards this idea.
I think Govt. may react or apply UBI at very late stage. But crowd-sourcing UBI can show the path to the future. Do you have any specific idea with blockchain that can help to build a crowd-sourced UBI? Or, is there any group working on that?
There are some really interesting ideas out there in the crypto-UBI space. Some are already out there, like Grantcoin (soon to be Manna), Circles, and most recently VIVA. There are those in the works like Cicada, Cubecoin, Musicoin and UBIcoin.
I know I'm missing some, but these are off the top of my head.
There are also some interesting platforms being developed around UBI as a concept. Personally, I'm most excited about the release of GroupIncome. Check it out!
As for my own idea, I'd like to see a cryptocurrency exchange apply an exchange fee that goes to every wallet on the exchange. It would be like a crypto-Tobin tax used to fund a netizen dividend for the exchange's users.
I brought up some of the Cicada ideas to @kyriacos on the post I had mentioned in my other comment, and I really couldn't disagree with the point he made. While it may offer some minimal level of UBI, if anyone can survive on that is another question entirely...
Great work, great article, great idea. I think it is the future, or the possibility for a nondystopian future.
What do you think crypto currencys role would be? I don't really like the idea of a fed coin.
The basic income trials have been to created bank accounts to verified people. Crypto/digital cash makes the accounts and accounting a lot easier, but how do you see the verification working? It would be fairly simple in the United States, through social security numbers and accounts.
Perhaps the basic income payments could just be paid to social security accounts and withdrawn if the citizen chose to, of just save it there, and gain interest somehow, incentivising some people to work and save.
The problems I see with this are
Reliance on government, ideally the basic income system would be separate from the government, like a grassroots federal reserve.
And the ID verification system, used to track citizens and their spending, if the data could be anonymized so ecnomists/businesses/customers could have more data to make better decisions while the individuals information could be secure.
If there's only one thing the government is good at, it's cutting checks. Through the Social Security system, everyone in the system reliably gets their income, the overhead is about 0.7%, and the amount of fraudulent payments is about 0.4%.
I'm just not worried about this perceived "reliance on government" problem. I think the most empowered citizens in the US are seniors receiving Social Security. They vote in huge numbers and because of that, government works for them,not the other way around. I think the Alaska dividend shows another example of this, with people turning out in large numbers to vote when anything dividend related is on the ballot.
I think the role of cryptocurrency is two-fold. Because it can be immediately implemented without government in some form for sub-groups, it can function as a way of building support for the idea of basic income at the national level, and immediately make a difference in people's lives. And after UBI is implemented, crytocurrencies with UBI somehow implemented as part of them or using them will function as another layer on top of the basic income, to increase total incomes, and building stronger foundations for people on which to build.
Personally, I'd like to see citizens take back control of their currencies in the form of seigniorage reform, where private banks are no longer allowed to create and expand money supplies in the form of debt, and instead money is created debt-free directly in the hands of citizens. Perhaps the blockchain could be part of that. I don't know.
I'm going to start taking notes on all of this. It's all so interesting and eye-opening !
Indeed it is. All of us are generally smarter, and certainly more informed, than just one of us.
With upcoming finger/iris sensor on smartphone, personal data can be encrypted and processed in anonymized way through machine learning or AI. Then ecnomists/businesses/customers can have abstract/meta data to make better decisions and conduct research.
Hi Scott, I'd like to hear what you think about
https://steemit.com/futurism/@gabriele-gio/thoughts-on-automated-luxury-communism-universal-basic-income-and-work
I think markets are wonderful (with a few exceptions like healthcare) at distributing goods and services efficiently via the decentralized widely distributed calculation tool we call the price mechanism using supply and demand signals via money. The calculation problem is not an unsolvable problem, but any attempt to centralize calculation will require sufficient computing power and vast data. I don't see us as being able to do that just yet, although I do see the potential down the road.
However, between right now and that unknown point in the future, I think it's mandatory that we sever the connection between work and income, so as to immediately improve how markets function thanks to everyone in those markets having the ability to signal demand, and also open the door to the future you seek by removing the fear of automation so as to accelerate our investments in it.
For more, please read this one of mine: https://medium.com/basic-income/cutting-the-gordian-knot-of-technological-unemployment-with-unconditional-basic-income-e8df7f8eaa16
And also this one: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-santens/humanity-needs-universal-_b_9599198.html
It's great to see you here, Scott. a few years ago you asked me to share my article on Basic Income on Medium in your Basic Income collection ("A basic guaranteed income in the context of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs", http://thedigitalfirehose.blogspot.com/2015/07/a-basic-guaranteed-income-in-context-of.html)). I've republished that article here on Steemit, too. It's great to see things come around again.
I really enjoyed your article. I think your article brings me up to date on the state of automation. I also really liked your point about intrinsic motivation. The studies you cite confirm what I've known for years: people are not born lazy. I know this from my own personal experience watching my own kids. I've found that whenever I want my kids to do a task, I frame it as a challenge, as something they want to do to prove they can do it. And they do it almost every time.
I also noticed your point about decoupling income from effort or performance. Few people talk about it, but it has been noticed by economist Dean Baker, that CEO pay is largely a matter between friends (http://cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/outlandish-ceo-pay-is-a-matter-between-friends). In other words, wealthy people have no problem determining pay based on something other than value added by the recipient of the pay for other people of the same class or status. For everyone else, determination of pay is an adversarial exercise. There is a certain amount of hypocrisy in their attitudes to be sure, but a UBI would ensure that productivity growth from technology would be returned to the citizens as a sort of dividend.
I have upvoted and resteemed your article, and I'm a new follower. I really look forward to further installments of your writing and wish you a very warm welcome here.
Thank you, and again, I'm a big fan of connecting basic income to Maslow. In fact, there's something that occurred to me recently that I tweeted about but I haven't turned it into a blog post yet. It's the realization that the most important levels of Maslow's Hierarchy are the top, and it's based on suicide. How many people kill themselves because they are hungry? If you're hungry, you're mostly going to do everything you can to find food to not die. Those who kill themselves are often those who find themselves only ever able to reach levels 1 and 2 of Maslow's pyramid. Day after day after day of just surviving... that's what leads to depression and hopelessness.
This idea that people who reach reach level 3 are just going to sit there doing nothing but surviving... it's ridiculous. Everyone wants to reach for more. Everyone wants to pursue something that's important to them, that provides meaning to life. If we just lift everyone up to level 3 as a starting point, we are going to see something not seen since the Renaissance.
Great post, It's good to see such forward thinkers in this sphere. Look forward to what you do with STEEM
Really good discussion about Basic Income. I think it is an idea worth experimenting with. I've been receiving BI from Grantcoin/Manna since it started last summer. I'm involved with what the VIVAconomy is doing in this area as well.
I think that the idea of BI on Steemit is interesting. There are already bots that up vote every single post made every day. It ran for a while but I don't think it is on the job right now. Would you propose a person gets their Steem BI just for being a member, or would it be based on their level of activity here?
How do you feel about BI as a government program funded by tax payers as opposed to programs like Grantcoin that distribute their payments from their Charity that people voluntarily contribe to? How BI would be funded is a big topic on some of the other Basic Income posts here, like the recent one by @heretickitten.
Up voted, resteemed, tweeted. Thanks for this post!
I'm okay with bots getting a dividend in order to make sure real people do as well, but I'd like to see some machine learning applied here to better filter out bot accounts. I think the dividend should require an extremely basic amount of activity, like perhaps one upvote per month or something extremely limited to receive that month's dividend.
How I would fund basic income is available here.
really interested. read part of it and saved to read more later.
can you give me more information on how the BIG PATREON CREATOR PLEDGE work?
does anybody can join regardless their campaign size?
I have a really small campaign there as well
http://www.patreon.com/malabarismo
one of my goals is to make it bigger so I can focus more of my efforts on creating creative content - more juggling and circus videos - but also steemit articles and many other things. why not?
:)
thanks a lot.
Lucas
Malabarize-se
Anyone on Patreon can take the BIG Pledge. Just set your goal to a basic income and pledge to donate anything over it to others making the same pledge, and let me know so I can add you to the list. ;)
just did it! this is my patreon page
made a copy paste, is it ok?
and added it to the $1,000 goal as well.
It'd be lovely to receive enough so I could focus 100% on the channel and creating juggling videos, and I'd more than happy to support other cultural projects with everything above $1,000 I received...
Lucas
Malabarize-se
I see you're set up per video instead of per month. To take the BIG pledge you'll need to switch to per month.
Ok. I'm on phone now. As soon as i can i'll change it when i get a computer and i let you know ;)
it took a while cause I was travelling. just did it.
https://www.patreon.com/malabarismo
can i join the big pledge now? :D
what else can I do to help spreading this idea?
You dont know what you have done with this post.
All i can say is thank you. Please i dont know how to go about it, i sincerely need your mentorship on this.
Take a look at it. All i said is true and when day breaks, i will try to add video
https://www.patreon.com/jammey?alert=2
Hi Scott, welcome to Steemit! Wow, what an introduction post. It took a while to read but it was certainly worth it.
Thank you so much for this fantastic idea of sharing the pool. I honestly believe that this would become the tipping point for Steemit to go viral. After starting about six weeks ago I quickly became a full time steemer and as you say my motivation was extrinsic at first. 100%. But that changed after the first few weeks because otherwise I wouldn't find the strenght to endure here since I haven't established a big followship yet.
I agree entirely on the idea of basic income since I heard about it the first time in 2007. In Germany it has been discussed by all major parties and was even program of the Pirate Party. I believe that Germany has a good potential to be among the first, when they see the concept working in the test areas. It must be on mankinds bucket list or we will surely create a dystopia. But I am very optimistic that there is a shift happening thanks to power of netizens.
Resteemed.
Thank you. There's indeed a lot of potential in Germany. The existing safety net is readily convertible to UBI, and there's even an entire new party there that's specifically about basic income, which is awesome to see will be on the ballots in all 16 federal states this year.
There's even a Basic Income cafe there now as well!
I think Germany is one of those nations that may just surprise people in the race for UBI... ;)
Also, what are the best ways to help spread the word and fight the fight?
It depends on where you live. If you can find or start something local, that's a great step!
https://www.reddit.com/r/BasicIncome/wiki/support#wiki_join_an_advocacy_group
Hi Scott!
I have been pretty active in the idea of a UBI for many years but lately, I changed my ideas and am very wary of the notion (at least in our current economic paradigm).
Maybe you could help re-center me. My main point of contention is UBI in the context of private unequal (massively unequal) ownership of the means of production and our natural world.
To me, the notion of a UBI in our current paradigm would make people more dependent on their states and governing bodies for their livelihoods. This would give more power to the states over its citizens. Thus further centralizing the power versus the distributed (albeit very faulty as well) system of corporations controlling this economic power.
Further centralizing (opposed to decentralizing) the power over us to meet our needs.
What do you think about this issue?
Further, if you care to answer. What do you think about collaborative ownership of private property in order to provide a UBI for said parties?
Example to clarify the point:
All citizens of the states OWNING an equal fraction of the entirety of the states which owns all the land. Those with the willingness to produce for their personal gain would have to pay to access collaboratively owned assets and this pay (tax) would be equitably distributed.
Now, that idea is ridiculous as a direct shift from where we are today to that is very difficult to fathom. But, this same system on a smaller scale. A start-up society where UBI is built in and collaborative ownership is a central element...
Anyway, I'm glad to have you here! I also have my own UBI, a privileged position to be. But, it does allow me freely pursue my passions of designing a society that will better work for all of us!
I see unconditional basic income as the key to unlocking the doors you wish to open, and the unconditional part as primary.
For a basic income to be basic income, it must lack conditions. Without conditions, the state has no power over you. Your basic income would be a fundamental right to economic security. The unconditionality would allow everyone to say no in so many ways they currently lack the power to do so. Lack of conditions means better ability to be an informed citizen, to be active and volunteer in elections, to vote in elections. This is greater power to the people, not less.
The ability to say no also provides enhanced bargaining power to workers. It enables workers the kind of power only currently possible through unions, and it even better enables the ability to organize and strike. Additionally, as capital and as consumer buying power, it allows more startups to choose to go the route of worker-self-owned enterprises. UBI enables workers the power to get a larger share of the pie, and to own a larger share as well.
The true transformational potential of UBI lies in the funding. The best UBI will be funded in the smartest ways. Smart of course isn't entirely objective, and some may disagree with what I consider to be smart, but if you haven't read this of mine, please do. It describes the Alaska model of UBI.
In regards to your question, I'd prefer to see a land value tax, and have that help fund the UBI, which is also described in the above link.
Hi @Scottsantens Apologies for the extremely delayed response. I needed to take some time to learn more about your ideas and the UBI concept as a whole in order to better add value to this discussion. At the end of the day, I completely agree with most everything you are saying in philosophy and in spirit.
I noticed the goal that it appears that you have is to petition our governments to enact laws creating a UBI. I think this is marvelous!
I also believe there is another approach, this is a 'bottom-up' approach. Rather than dedicating my energy towards modifying the current systems I have been actively engaged in creating complementary systems that can be enacted at a community level to achieve similar results and start to transition society. This scale can impact a community on a monthly time scale opposed to the yearly/decade timescale of governments.
You mentioned in your Alaska article.
I couldn't agree more. However, I wanted a model that was even more direct than the one you detailed. So. Here it is!
This is all to say that I have been engaged in designing a new society model (called Our NeighbourGood) with an economic model centered on a Crypto-currency that would be able to begin to enact UBI-like policies. I would love some feedback from you on the functionality and methodology I have described.
Challenging the Old Money Gods (Including Bitcoin)! A New Crypto-Currency for a New Society!
https://steemit.com/money/@rieki/onc-a-new-coin-for-a-new-society-a-solution-for-ubi-decentralization-and-ecological-destruction-all-addressed-in-one-coin
If you have a moment to weight in on this idea. I would greatly appreciate any contributions you could make our insights you could offer!
Warmly,
Rieki
Yup! It need be! We also need new leadership that isn't prone to cynical misanthropy; that understands that humans will engage positively when given half a chance with their basic needs met ( Maslow)....
I think the fairest way to do this would be to socialize the creation of money.i.e. Positivemoney.org......Crypto might do the trick, too...We'll see .....I'm calling for something like The Global Commons Society with Four Pillars taken off capitalist coercion and unnecessary exploitation:
1)housing
2)food
3)education (re-ed. on ecology and economy).
4)health-care and a large part of that is teaching preventative techniques....
I love the idea of combining Positive Money with UBI. I keep hoping that they will start talking a lot more about UBI as the way of creating money, because I think that makes far more sense to fully decentralize the currency creation, than it does to let government decide how it wishes to spend the money it creates for itself instead of its citizens.
Oh, yes, it's a very bad idea to have currency creation modeled on a debt pyramid scheme!
My Four Pillars will be difficult for hard core Capitalists for a number of reasons which I'll list below...
2)they tend to deny that there are limits to growth.
3)they tend to deny that scaling a new civilization without fossil fuels is hard...Very, very hard...
4)they tend to deny that 10 billion people by 2050 practicing various types of narcissistic behavior is any problem at all....
But, hey, one problem at a time, I suppose, but my Four Pillars adequately addresses all these issues and still leaves room for a stripped down capitalist system.....
I'm not up on this basic income idea - it seems like the same theory as minimum wage, but maybe I'm wrong.
Does your project focus only on the US? If so does it take into account the soaring death rates of Americans? I'm in health care, and things are very bleak. I saw a projection of a dramatic decrease in US native born population by 2040, I think.
I did not keep a link to the study and I'm on the hunt for it, but it seems true to me. I'm in a lot of chronic disease groups and the people are getting sicker more quickly and dying like crazy.
In my weight loss groups 400+ pound people used to be rare and now they are common, just for one example. I think if the population decreases, this changes your scope maybe.
Followed you on Twitter and here and glad to connect :)
About min wage and UBI, please read this one of mine. The two ideas are quite different.
Because you appear to be coming from a health care angle, I also recommend this one and this one.
After having read those, whatever questions you have, you may find them answered right here. ;)
Thank you - I will take a look. I deal with a lot of people ending up homeless due to their disabilities, loss of family support, and inability to work or get benefits. It's a big mess for sure.
A basic income is a belief I have, except I am actively working to build it from passive income through real estate and business investments. Half way there. Having that minimum income come in gives the freedom to pursue whatever work you want, paid or not. :-)
If you missed it, you might really enjoy this post along those lines. ;)
https://www.opendemocracy.net/beyondslavery/karl-widerquist/my-own-private-basic-income
That is a good article, it goes back to what I keep telling people. You must own things (assets, business, etc) if you ever want financial freedom. At least in the current economic and legal structure. If the rules of the game change one day (which they need many of) then this mantra may change, but until then I plan to create and own as much as I can.
@scottsantens - Wow! that's an amazing article. Lots of information. I like some of your suggestions related to reward system. Hope to see more post like this from you.
Thanks! I'm definitely planning on posting more. ;)
welcome to steemit! followed you pls follow back ;)
have fun!
Most people think of automation and robotics taking over minimum wage jobs or the McD job. The truth is McD jobs are even cheaper than robotics that are already in use at ports, warehouses, and even in software engineering. When most good jobs are gone and only service industry jobs are available then we have a problem - that's what most people who support Basic Income are trying to prepare for.
The concept of a guaranteed basic income is new to me and it's growing on me. One immediate concern that comes up is this: if everyone is getting paid a certain amount to meet basic needs, wouldn't that drive the prices of basic goods up to the point where that basic income was no longer enough to meet those needs? I'm sure this has been asked before, so what is the best article to read to address that objection?
That's possibly the most frequently asked question of all, which is why I wrote this one to answer it in great detail.
https://medium.com/basic-income/wouldnt-unconditional-basic-income-just-cause-massive-inflation-fe71d69f15e7
Welcome to Steem, @scottsantens. You seem to have a lot knowledge that I desperately need to learn from. Can't wait to see your future posts.
Thanks! And if you'd like to learn more without waiting, you can always check out my FAQ.
I like UBI, because people need food, clothes and whatnot. In a world where robots make these in abundance, people should have free access to them. That's because I like people. Better than robots anyway. I don't see how taking away money away as an extrensic motivator / economy is a good idea or even possible. Not because I think people are lazy but we just need it to value the things we do. Even your good hearted kids who raised the most charity understood money.
I don't suggest taking away money, so it's possible you misunderstood me. I'm suggesting that people start each month with enough money to purchase their basic needs, and that in doing so, they would be more able to pursue the work they find most valuable to them, which would either be paid or unpaid depending on what's important to them.
...money as an extrinsic motivator can destroy motivation and also hinder creative thinking. Intrinsic motivation is far more powerful. Well said!
Nice to see you :* have a great time
@adilmaher
Welcome to SteemIt.
No offense meant here, but if Universal Basic Income was such a great idea, you would not have to dedicate your life & make Herculean efforts in trying to promote it.
For instance, take cryptocurrency - an idea whos' time has truly come. It will not be stopped, because it is a superior idea. Because of it's very nature - the intrinsic properties of blockchain technology - it will be adopted and implemented by free-thinking, freedom-loving, powerful individuals - and it will radically change the world. I don't have to "convince" anyone that cryptos are a good idea, because they will discover that fact for themselves over time.
UBI, on the other hand...? I'm not convinced at all, and neither are a lot of other people. What works really well in a small, poverty-sticken nation such as Nambia does not necessarily work well in a large, industrialized nation like the USA. UBI, by it's very nature, lends itself to a top-down process which will inevitably breed corruption. Blockchain technology is highly resistant to corruption.
We just had a "crisis" with BitCoin - and its' corruption has been avoided, for now, because of its' properties. UBI is an economic theory - a largely unproven one, at that. It may work well here or there, in a microcosm, but it is not by any means a proven system ready for worldwide adoption - I don't think. At the end of the day, it may have to be imposed upon people, against their will. That is not the hallmark of a great idea.
The reason you have to convince people on the merits of UBI is that Joe Public believes (rightly or wrongly) that it will cost him something. Creating a new cryptocurrency doesn't involuntarily cost anyone anything. There's also the reality that most people have no fucking clue how money or the economy works. If they did they might be far more amenable to the UBI idea. Finally, there's also the silly moral angle that it's somehow wrong to get something for "free". When most of the population are too thick to consider that morals may not be objective and absolute, it's no wonder that you have to convince people of this stuff.
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STOPExcellent in everyway. Amazing that you have been a member here since last year and this is your 1st post. Looking foward to more you got my vote.
Welcome. It is my hope that Steem will become a place for journalists, scholars and philosophers to speak freely, build a voice and make crypto for their efforts. Followed, upvoted and resteemed.
Welcome to Steemit! Wow what a read. Interesting, very informative and thanks for sharing! :)
Hi Scott, love your writing and the value you consistently add to the basic income conversation. Also, I joined Steemit after hearing about it from you, so thanks for the recommendation! Cheers from a fellow chihuahua-parent :)
I really enjoyed the post... I will be following and hoping to engage in conversations of this sort. I think we have the potential to monetize a whole bunch of areas of the internet... it is only a matter of us 'voting' with our participation. By posting on Steemit instead of facebook I have chosen to see value in both what I write and what I 'like'. There are decentralized blockchain search engines, publishers, tweet machines... etc... all on the way that just by using, could move us closer to the utopia as opposed to the dystopia we can see attempting to solidify.
I really appreciate your perspective on basic income and human nature not being lazy and self serving... I am of the same mind in these respects.
I will leave it at that... thank you for sharing.
Congratulations @scottsantens!
Your post was mentioned in the hit parade in the following category:
Apply this to Steemit. Look at the posts here. Look at how people interact with each other. My perception is that a lot of what's posted here is in the pursuit of money.
your full article is really written perfectly but I mention just this above statement as it is really right people need to interact with each other without any greedeness and encourage each other
and freedom of speech is really important factor for any social network
I must say downvoting is a negative point as according to your saying people get feered with it if they speek they will be downvoted with greater steem power so they will loose something hardly earned
first income is really need to be demonstrated to all over the world as here in our country people only depend on what they hardly earn with full day effort, every one need to awared of variety of ways to earn a good income without hard efforts as AI has made things possible now adays
The future is going to be one weird place that's for sure.
Fantastic post... I'm a newbie here also and still trying to find how I can contribute. This does give one the motivation and has some great ideas on what the future can hold.. if we choose the right path. Thanks, look forward to reading more from you @scottsantens
I just re-read this again because WOW there is so much here. So many though provoking ideas I freaking LOVE it! Also, side note: how did you get the text at the bottom or the article to change to blue / how did you get it to link to other things?
Thanks! The links are created via markup language. Click the link for markdown styling guide that you should see as soon as you open up a text box.
@scottsantens I am starting a podcast where I interview other entrepreneurs, I would like to invite to the inaugural episodes.
The podcasts will be hosted on my youtube account: https://www.youtube.com/nantchev
We talk about what they are doing with their life, business as well as their journey. A casual conversation about entrepreneurship.
Please email me. You can reach me via scottsantens.com.
Your email does not work on your website, so I have sent you a message on FB.
It really is just a link to ornagse when your interview will be: https://calendly.com/adriannantchev/entrepreneur-podcast
Hi Scott
Just joined steem. First example of introduce yourself was this...Initial reaction: overwhelm, is this the bar for basic introduction? Then I overcame this insecurity and realized steem must be a great place to attract people like you. Motivated to contribute!
That was a really amazing post. I've been really fascinated for the last year by both automation and a Universal Basic Income. After reading the post I'm definitely going to follow you and see what you have to say later on. Seeing your picture I think I've actually read a bit from you before.
I'm very new to Steemit myself and I've already noticed one thing about it is that there are a lot of people on the platform who really are careful with what they say, I've even caught myself doing it sometimes. I really like your idea about applying a type of UBI to Steemit because the reality is that by paying for upvoting there definitely are advantages but you also have so many people really pulling their punches and trying not to offend. I noticed right away that the way some people post here is very different than almost any other site out there and there's this big push for positivity which is alright for a while but it doesn't really leave any room for criticism and having an actual discussion over anything.
One thing that I'm very interested in with automation is really how it's going to effect money. I've heard a lot of things good and bad. One thing I haven't heard too much on though and would love to know your opinion on is that when we do see a massive movement towards automation and the cost of production on most items go down, will we also see a drop in price and is it going to significantly lower our cost of living? And could we one day live in a world without money?
Wonderful ! happy to meet you . I have seen you followers are more than 2 k on facebook. that's great. I @azizbd will be in touch with you and our school @SchoolForSDG4 also.
best of luck @scottsantens
If I remember correctly I have across your blog. Somewhere 2 or 3months ago, I was searching for a project which I had to search for basic income. Nice post by the way. Following you now.
♣♣♣♣♣I will follow back those people who will follow me, I just thought that's a fair deal.♣♣♣♣♣
Very good post! Glad i found you. Also, check out the work of Economist Professor Guy Standing on this subject. He has many presentations over at YouTube. Thanks!
I know him and we have spoken before. Cheers!
hi... nice to see you ..
welcome on steemit .. have a great time ...
follow me @mahr,, good luck.. :* <3
this is INCREDIBLE. Thank you , thank you, thank you for sharing all of this. I'm so excited to learn more from you and connect. So excited. Cheers mate! Followed, re-steemed.