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UBI Works 🇨🇦
@ubi_works
Our Mission: Make Basic Income an election-winning policy by spreading evidence-based narratives and empowering leaders & advocates. (fr :
@UBIWorks_fr
)
Non-Governmental & Nonprofit Organization Canadalinktr.ee/UBIWorksJoined September 2019
11.5K Following
16.8K Followers

UBI Works 🇨🇦’s Tweets

UBI Works 🇨🇦 Retweeted
Libbie Grant
@thelibbiegrant
Replying to
@Marlow22
@rooneynotmara and
@ubi_works
Yep! AND... when UBI was actually studied in practice, guess what... people who had UBI *worked more* and made more direct, objective contributions to their communities. They also got more education. It raised the productivity of everyone in the community.
bbc.com
Canada’s forgotten universal basic income experiment
Amid wide unemployment during Covid-19, basic income schemes have gained fresh relevance. A successful Canadian scheme that's over four decades old could provide a road map for others.
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UBI Works 🇨🇦
@ubi_works
Plus, many business leaders and CEOs (esp. in tech) support basic income for another reason: because they see firsthand the impacts of automation on the workforce. Over 150 CEOs and business leaders who've signed on now:
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UBI Works 🇨🇦
@ubi_works
Over 130 Canadian CEOs and business leaders, representing $1.5 billion/year in combined revenues and 4,900+ staff, have signed onto our letter calling for Basic Income. See the full list of signatories here: ceosforbasicincome.ca/signatories #CEOsforBasicIncome
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UBI Works 🇨🇦
@ubi_works
"But CEWS, which will cost $100 billion by the time it wraps up next year, was meant to help businesses struggling keep employees on their payroll. And whether the program is actually doing that is far from clear."
cbc.ca
Why millions of dollars in pandemic aid is going to corporations making healthy profits | CBC News
As Ottawa gives corporations billions in wage subsidies, and those companies pay out billions in dividends, it’s still unclear how many jobs are being saved.
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UBI Works 🇨🇦
@ubi_works
In fact, the actual Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) was a disaster. Billions towards share buybacks and dividends that were meant for workers. A basic income that went straight to the people would've been fairer and more efficient.
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Scott Santens
@scottsantens
Replying to @PublicWrx @votelau and 12 others
UBI would only be a wage subsidy for employers offering high demand work that people really want. UBI would not be a wage subsidy for shit work that people don't want because the UBI would grant people the power to refuse the wage offered until the offer is high enough.
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UBI Works 🇨🇦
@ubi_works
We already do this with our carbon rebate, which leaves most households better off. In Alaska, everyone gets a dividend from a permanent fund capitalized by oil revenues and it's wildly popular. Both programs recognize the fact that nature is our shared inheritance.
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UBI Works 🇨🇦
@ubi_works
Instead of taxing working people, we could collect natural resource rents and return the money to everyone equally as a UBI. It's fair and efficient.
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UBI Works 🇨🇦
@ubi_works
What UBI would do is redefine our meaning of work. Community gardens and creating art is meaningful work, just like caregiving and volunteering - basic income recognizes and values this!
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rooney ☻ - revision mode
@rooneynotmara
Replying to @thelibbiegrant
I’ve been following @ubi_works for a while bc I believe in it so much. Even Johnny who doesn’t work and lives in his simple subsidized apartment and spends his UBI on a hobby garden and local arts would be contributing to the economy in a meaningful way.
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UBI Works 🇨🇦 Retweeted
Libbie Grant
@thelibbiegrant
Replying to @rooneynotmara and
@ubi_works
YES! I used to be very skeptical of UBI, until I actually read the studies that were done experimenting with it, and it became instantly clear to me that UBI would solve... uh... MOST social and political problems in most western nations. There's no good reason NOT to have it.
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UBI Works 🇨🇦
@ubi_works
Over and over again, we see the same results. People who get a basic income have an easier time securing work, very often full-time, and many go back to school to train. The exception is students and new parents, who can spend more time studying and raising their kids.
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UBI Works 🇨🇦
@ubi_works
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Incredible findings from an active Basic Income pilot in Hudson, NY. Employment INCREASED for both cohorts, 72% and 150% above baseline. Similar to Ontario Basic Income Pilot data, and 1/3 of those working found HIGHER paying work.⤵️
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UBI Works 🇨🇦
@ubi_works
Eventually, we could expand our dividends to include all natural and socially-created common wealth, including transformative AI technology.
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Scott Santens
@scottsantens
"My amusement quickly turned to horror: it had taken ChatGPT roughly 30 seconds to create, for free, an article that I charged £500 for." A copywriter realizing AI is definitely going to impact his income. We need basic income as a tech dividend ASAP. theguardian.com/commentisfree/
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UBI Works 🇨🇦
@ubi_works
Alaska's Permanent Fund Dividend has been wildly successful, inspiring many around the world to want to do something similar.
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David Pocock
@DavidPocock
All Australians should benefit from Australian resources. It doesn't make any sense that oil and gas companies are getting to walk away with record profits while Australians are left with nothing.
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UBI Works 🇨🇦
@ubi_works
We've got some estimates in the works, but there's enough resource rents in Canada to fund a substantial dividend without taxing workers or impacting economic production.
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UBI Works 🇨🇦
@ubi_works
Instead of taxing working people, we could collect natural resource rents and return the money to everyone equally as a UBI. It's fair and efficient.
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UBI Works 🇨🇦
@ubi_works
– paid for by AI-generated wealth – is the best bet for the future... Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, claimed that AI could drive enough economic output to pay every adult in the US $13,500 a year, while dramatically driving down the cost of goods and services.'
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UBI Works 🇨🇦
@ubi_works
'By the mid-2030s, [jobs at risk] will jump to 30% – 44% among workers with low education. That’s a lot of people who will need to “upskill”, retrain or drop out of the workforce. ... Some observers have suggested that the introduction of a Universal Basic Income (UBI)
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UBI Works 🇨🇦
@ubi_works
"it took ChatGPT 30 seconds to create, for free, an article that would take me hours to write.. that I charged £500 for." Meanwhile, OpenAI CEO
@sama
says AI could generate enough productivity to pay every US adult "about $13,500 a year". AI 🤝 UBI
theguardian.com
I’m a copywriter. I’m pretty sure artificial intelligence is going to take my job | Henry Williams
My amusement turned to horror: it took ChatGPT 30 seconds to create, for free, an article that would take me hours to write
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UBI Works 🇨🇦 Retweeted
UBI Works 🇨🇦
@ubi_works
Incredible findings from an active Basic Income pilot in Hudson, NY. Employment INCREASED for both cohorts, 72% and 150% above baseline. Similar to Ontario Basic Income Pilot data, and 1/3 of those working found HIGHER paying work.⤵️
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UBI Works 🇨🇦
@ubi_works
Common Wealth Dividends, funded by co-owned resources (both natural and socially-created, like AI) are how we ensure that society's advancements benefit as many people as possible.
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Steve Roth
@asymptosis
The robots are coming your jobs and mine, gentle readers. Owners will reap most of the income, just for owning stuff. It's time to establish a Common Wealth Fund, and deliver Common Wealth Dividends. Share the unearned income. theguardian.com/commentisfree/
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UBI Works 🇨🇦 Retweeted
Steve Roth
@asymptosis
The robots are coming your jobs and mine, gentle readers. Owners will reap most of the income, just for owning stuff. It's time to establish a Common Wealth Fund, and deliver Common Wealth Dividends. Share the unearned income.
theguardian.com
I’m a copywriter. I’m pretty sure artificial intelligence is going to take my job | Henry Williams
My amusement turned to horror: it took ChatGPT 30 seconds to create, for free, an article that would take me hours to write
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UBI Works 🇨🇦 Retweeted
Scott Santens
@scottsantens
"My amusement quickly turned to horror: it had taken ChatGPT roughly 30 seconds to create, for free, an article that I charged £500 for." A copywriter realizing AI is definitely going to impact his income. We need basic income as a tech dividend ASAP.
theguardian.com
I’m a copywriter. I’m pretty sure artificial intelligence is going to take my job | Henry Williams
My amusement turned to horror: it took ChatGPT 30 seconds to create, for free, an article that would take me hours to write
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UBI Works 🇨🇦 Retweeted
Scott Santens
@scottsantens
Basic income buys any food, and no one knows it's basic income because it's just cash.
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Ehren (Ry's fave)
@CampArlington
Here's my complaint about foods stamps: you can't buy prepared food. I was on food stamps a decade ago when I was homeless. The grocery store sold rotisserie chicken but I could only buy the raw chicken. WTF was I supposed to cook it with? I was homeless.
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UBI Works 🇨🇦
@ubi_works
Providing a permanent basic income would largely eliminate the need for food banks, which have seen use skyrocket as more go hungry. "If that happened, we might all be out of jobs. But we'd be happy" - Greater Vancouver Food Bank COO, Cynthia Boulter
vancouverisawesome.com
Only one-in-five hungry Canadians use food banks — what's broken?
40 years on, food banks are doing nothing for the majority of nearly 6 million hungry Canadians. Experts say something needs to change
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UBI Works 🇨🇦
@ubi_works
As employment recovered, fewer and fewer people took CERB. When it evolved into CRB, workers kept part of benefit when they began earning income, so that they always earn more while employed.
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UBI Works 🇨🇦
@ubi_works
"CERB perspective: think twice before repeating another anecdote about the program making low-wage workers hesitant to return to jobs." — Former Scotiabank VP & Deputy Chief Economist Brett House
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UBI Works 🇨🇦
@ubi_works
Canada's leading entrepreneurs support basic income because it would've helped them as they started their businesses too.
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UBI Works 🇨🇦
@ubi_works
Shopify CEO, Tobi Lütke, on why he supports Basic Income and how it would allow more people to tap into their fuller potential. "It seems to me the right solution... the most Canadian thing possible we could accomplish."
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UBI Works 🇨🇦
@ubi_works
Canada's leading entrepreneurs support basic income because it would've helped them as they started their businesses too.
Quote Tweet
UBI Works 🇨🇦
@ubi_works
Shopify CEO, Tobi Lütke, on why he supports Basic Income and how it would allow more people to tap into their fuller potential. "It seems to me the right solution... the most Canadian thing possible we could accomplish."
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0:38
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