Scott Santens: UBI is Your Key
on Tuesday, March 10, 2020
Scott Santens Money Quote saying Universal Basic Income (UBI) is the key representing the cost to the right to exist. Scott Santens said:
“Poverty is not having nothing. Poverty is being legally excluded from having sufficient access to resources to exist. Life on Earth used to lack a price tag. We changed that by locking up access to natural resources & letting the owner class hold all the keys. UBI IS YOUR KEY.” — Scott Santens
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In this quote, Scott Santens is discussing the nature and causes of poverty. He argues that poverty is not simply about having nothing, but rather is a state of being legally prevented from accessing enough resources necessary to survive.
Santens notes that in the past, access to basic natural resources needed for life was not restricted or commodified. But he says that over time, societies have “locked up” common resources and concentrated control over them in the hands of a owning/controlling class. This has effectively placed a price on accessing life’s basic necessities.
Santens then presents Universal Basic Income (UBI) as a potential “key” that could unlock or guarantee access to at least basic resources for survival, countering the effects of restricting the commons and concentrating wealth. So in essence, the quote analyzes poverty as being more about lack of access due to legal/economic barriers rather than scarcity itself, and promotes UBI as a way of restoring access independent of one’s economic participation or status.
Poverty is not having nothing.
Poverty is being legally excluded from having sufficient access to resources to exist.
Life on Earth used to lack a price tag. We changed that by locking up access to natural resources & letting the owner class hold all the keys.
UBI IS YOUR KEY. pic.twitter.com/uM1upZGUy0
— Scott Santens🧢 (@scottsantens) February 2, 2019