Scott Santens

Ireland just released a report showing the huge success of the unconditional basic income it provided to artists. Each $1 spent led to society gaining $1.39. Artists' earned incomes went up more than their side job incomes fell. And they were happier and used less welfare

https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-culture-communications-and-sport/press-releases/basic-income-for-the-arts-pilot-produced-over-100-million-in-social-and-economic-benefits/

Sep 23, 2025 at 3:32pmWeb
Show threadAshwin DixitSep 23, 2025

@scottsantens

Goodmorning Scott,

UBI has been on my radar for some time now. Here's a proposal that I would like to get your thoughts on:

https://rant.li/ashwin/visions-for-a-new-web#alohacoin

Visions for a New Web

( Web De-enshittification, Ethical AI, Worker-owned Co-Ops & Wealth Redistribution ) Table of Contents Introduction Identities — t...

The Moving Finger
Show threadwizardwesSep 23, 2025
@purrperl @scottsantens Obviously not the person you asked the opinion of, but there are some problems. First and foremost, if the maximum money a wallet can hold is N/W, as the article says, then it's literally pointless to exchange money, as is the 10% gas fee on transactions, because everyone would always have the maximum amount of money. You would have to use some multiple of N, so as to set a maximum wealth that is some greater multiple of the average wealth. But also, even ignoring the mathematical issues, you would need some form of enforcement of 1-person 1-wallet that is technologically infeasible without a governmental body presiding over this, and I'm currently unaware of a world government that would support such a scheme.
Show threadGuillotine Jones, FlâneurSep 23, 2025
@scottsantens
Artists?
Who needs artists?
We need drones with faces to grind.
Show threadHawkslightSep 23, 2025
@scottsantens And as with the past hundred plus unmitigated successes of tests of UBI, it will be ignored because it doesn't support the greed of the wealthy.
Show threadNikoSep 23, 2025
@Hawkslight @scottsantens accurate
Show threadJo - pièce de résistanceSep 23, 2025
@scottsantens
Every report is always the same results. If they really cared about the “economy”, everyone in poverty and low to mid income brackets would get UBI. Ideally everyone. Because DV would decrease so much if everyone had it.
Empower people. Disempower billionaires.
Show threadMarcial 🇨🇷🇻🇪Sep 24, 2025
@JoBlakely @scottsantens A bit less learned here than I’d like to be; what is “DV” in this context?
Show threadJo - pièce de résistanceSep 24, 2025

@moshimotsu @scottsantens

Domestic Violence
https://www.breakthecycle.org/domestic-violence-statistics/

Domestic Violence Statistics 2024

Domestic violence statistics over the years paint a grim picture, revealing the persistent and escalating nature of the issue:

Break The Cycle
Show threadMarcial 🇨🇷🇻🇪Sep 24, 2025

@JoBlakely @scottsantens Oh shoot, while I didn’t put two and two together in the acronym, that makes so much sense.

Thank you for the resource, as well!

Show threadSeachaintSep 23, 2025
@scottsantens Alt-text: text snippets from the linked article summarising some of the benefits of the programme
Show threadmeowra ➡️ Moved to @[email protected] !Sep 23, 2025
@scottsantens Alt text:

Text snippet from the linked article: “For every € 1 of public money invested in the pilot, society received € 1.39 in return. The net cost of the BIA pilot went from € 105 m to under € 72 m due to tax generated and savings on social welfare payments.”

Another text snippet from the linked article: “It also finds that recipients’ arts-related income increased by over € 500 per month on average, while their income from non-arts work decreased by around € 280. Dependence on social protection declined, with recipients receiving € 100 less per month on average, and 38 percentage points less likely to receive Jobseeker’s payments.”
Show threadForgetful Bri Sep 23, 2025

@scottsantens #Alt4You

First image:

For every €1 of public money invested in the pilot, society received €1.39 in return
The net cost of the BIA pilot went from €105m to under €72m due to tax generated and savings on social welfare payments

Second image:

It also finds that recipients’ arts-related income increased by over €500 per month on average, while their income from non-arts work decreased by around €280. Dependence on social protection declined, with recipients receiving €100 less per month on average, and 38 percentage points less likely to receive Jobseeker’s payments.

Show threadkidney_stoneSep 23, 2025
@scottsantens Interesting study and I sure hope that this is true, but I am puzzled by this part: "The most substantial social gain came from improvements in psychological wellbeing, contributing almost €80 million to total benefits." How exactly do you measure benefits in psychological wellbeing in monetary terms?
Show threadMennoSep 23, 2025
@scottsantens
Is that $1.39 in Irish dollars?
Show threadJeff McNeillSep 25, 2025
@scottsantens Give artists money and they will create, and sell, more art. Same argument given by capitalists for job creation. But in this case it is true.
Show threadLeBonkOct 12
@scottsantens
Worth keeping in mind, however, that for some subset of people, statistics like this won't matter at all. Not in the sense that they'll just ignore reality, but in the sense that they don't consider "materially making people's lives better" to be a primary function of their ideal government. For some subset of people, the function of government is to punish inherently-sinful humans and ensure the best people are at the top of the hierarchy, and UBI or similar programs are bad because they "reward laziness".
If convincing people is our goal, we need to be ready to recognize when we have fundamentally different unspoken base assumptions, and be ready to argue against those rather than assuming the starting premises are identical.