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How Do We Pay for Universal Basic Income? Tax Stock the Way Companies Already Issue It.
(scottsantens.substack.com)
this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2026
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Pragmatic Leftist Theory
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The neolibs are too far right. The tankies are doing whatever that is. Where's the space for the people who want fully-automated-luxury-gay-space-communism, but realize that it's gonna take a while and there are lots of steps between now and then? Here. This is that space.
Here, people should endeavor to discuss and devise practical, actionable leftist action. Vote lesser evil while you build grassroots coalitions. Unionize your workplace. Participate in SRAs. Build cohesion your local community. Educate the proletariat.
This is a place for practical people to develop practical plans to implement stable, incremental improvement.
If you're dead-set on drumming up all 18,453 True Leftists® into spontaneous Revolution, go somewhere else. The grown ups are talking.
Rules:
-1. Don't be a dick. Racism, sexism, other assorted bigotries, you know the drill. At least try to default to mutually respectful discussion. We're all on the same side here, unless you aren't, in which case kindly leave.
-2. Don't be a tankie. Yes I'm sure you have an extensive knowledge of century-old theory. There's been a century of history since then. Things didn't shake out as expected, maybe consider the possibility that a different angle of attack might be more effective in light of new data.
-3. Be practical. No one on the left benefits from counterproductive actions. This is a space informed by, not enslaved to, ideology. Promoting actions that are fundamentally untenable in the system in question, because they fulfill a sense of ideological purity, is a bad look. Don't do that.
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Fair enough, and you did, my counter thought was more targeted at the article itself lol. Still a good video tho!
Well when I clicked on the link it loaded a couple minutes from the end, so.
If I had the power to force one bill through, I'd ban the stock market. Stock is fine for employees, makes for a great pension. But you can't own stock in a company you don't work for. If you want to invest in a company you don't work for, buy bonds.
There's no good reason for private ownership through capital investment. Private capital investment can happen without ownership.
Amen. Keep the stock market on wallstreet, let them bet on what they want, ans if it fails, they're the only ones that should lose. Tying it to our retirement, our healthcare, our bonuses...then we're the ones left holding the bag. Which, is classic corporatism/capitalism. Socialize the losses and privatize the gains.
The whole AI companies going public is just such corruption on a huge scale, forcing all of us, without our consent, to buy into these companies and then call them "too big to rig" so then our tax dollars will have to bail them out when they inevitably fail.
I'm glad the S&P had the werewithall to reject their disgusting fast track plan. Though, now Trump is floating having the government acquire stocks in them, so here we go again, same problem.
Revolution now please?
Just as soon as we get about 30 million organized revolutionaries. Heck, call it 3 million if they're organized enough.
Probably gonna be waiting a bit for that tho.
Unfortunately. The only good thing about all this pain is that more people are finally waking up a bit and are finally looking up. Ironically, billionaires might be creating more socialists right now than socialists have in years lol
Maybe, hopefully, still not a great situation. The problem with accelerationism is that it tends to overestimate how sensitive the proverbial frog is to the water temperature rising. Bread and circuses are a powerful thing, even when they're just relatively cheap instead of free. "Creating more socialists than socialists have in years" isn't a particularly high bar. I have my doubts that the quantity is statistically significant, being exposed to the average American on a daily basis.
Yeah, it's obviously hard to tell and not a great situation, no one should have to suffer. I still deal with them everyday and many and incredibly self motivated. Which is exactly what capitalism wants you to be. But, I do see many who are even further up in corporate roles that feel the same as I do.
I really feel the world is coming to a head, where humanity is finding itself, globally, with two very generalized camps. Those that are selfish and that hoard money and power and those that are empathetic and care about supporting each other in spite of profit. I know which side I hope will win, and as more and more of the bread and the circus is torn away, more people in those high up places start to question things.
It really sucks that so many fall into the selfish camp and until they're personally affected they won't move.
I think broad success is going to come from finding people outside the "leftist" label that embody leftist ideals. I think there's too much online atheist energy for our own good, Christians can be a valuable asset if we can learn to leverage the teachings of Jesus. Red state voters have that dog in them, if you learn how to engage it. I think the main problem is that we let vocabulary get in the way of the message.