Let There Be Money: Understanding Modern Monetary Theory and Basic Income

What a breath of fresh air this little book is. A way to do economics that puts the wellbeing of people at the forefront, along with potentially enabling far better resource management to reduce our environmental impact on the planet.Scott Santens is such a great communicator. Even those with no prior knowledge or understanding of MMT or UBI will be able to easily follow this well constructed proposal for an economics that could benefit us all.

Eine Inspirationsbombe für alle, die sich fragen, wie eine menschenfreundliche, ressourcensparende, effektive und demokratische Wirtschaft aussehen kann.Kurz, knapp und voller Inhalt.Wer es sich beim Lesen zusätzlich anhören will: Auf der Website des Autors findet sich ein Link – vom Autor selbst vorgelesen!

If you’re happy being set in your existing ideas about how to help the poor and better our economic system, don’t read this book! Or, if you do, dismiss it out of hand without any sincere soul-searching.But, if, in contrast, you care enough about the problems you see in our economic system in regard to helping the poor to want to make change actually happen, you should consider that this will only happen if you build coalitions with people whose ideas are not exactly the same as yours.In this book, well-known advocate of universal basic income (UBI) Scott Santens helps advocates of universal basic income (UBI) see the strengths of modern monetary theory (MMT), and he helps advocates of MMT see the strengths of UBI. This is no small task, as adherents of MMT and UBI are usually at each other’s throats online and politically, effectively canceling each other out so that transformative economic change doesn’t happen.Reaching out to “the other side” takes courage, but Santens displays such courage in this book. Written thoughtfully in an easy-to-understand non-dogmatic fashion, this book will help give those UBI and MMT opponents who give it a chance the ability to appreciate that UBI and MMT advocates share many of the same values and to see members of “the other side” as people with whom they may be able to learn, compromise, and join forces for substantive societal change.I hope this book will be received in the good faith in which it was written.

The perfect gift for all your UBI and MMT friends.UBI is my thing. I've been researching and working on it for years, I've run a UBI pilot, I'm building a UBI app, and I've interviewed dozens of experts and written dozens of essays on the subject.At least 4 of those essays were in a sincere and concerted attempt to make peace between the baffling and counterproductive bad blood between the UBI and MMT movements, to explain why they're natural allies that would strengthen each other together, to explain why we would be foolish not to understand (in plain English) and incorporate both ideas, engage both political fanbases, and amplify their potential for massively beneficial systemic change.But before I wrote those essays, I checked if Scott had written any, because I knew he'd do it better, and I'd always rather just share his stuff. He hadn't then, but now he has, and I wasn't wrong. He did it better. Thank you Scott.Give this book a read.

Scott Santens has next levelled the Universal Basic Income discussion by presenting a forceful argument that the implementation of UBI will require widespread acceptance of Modern Monetary Theory. As our economic influencers opine on the federal government’s lackluster economic response to the COVID pandemic in 2020, Santens is the most perceptive one in the room, identifying with accuracy the intellectual roadblocks which prevented Congress from issuing regular UBI payments to citizens when they needed it the most. Santens’ suggestions for electoral systems improvements- Ranked Choice Voting, open primaries, multi-winner Congressional Districts, public financing of campaigns- all are urgently needed reminders that Congress and the economy should work for the people, not vice versa. Bertrand Russell’s influence on Santens is apparent as he argues effectively that citizens cannot stimulate the country’s economy sufficiently if they lack money and time to spend on recreation. Mr. Santens argues for a four-day work week as both a way for consumers to spend time on entertainment and other personal endeavors, and as a way to increase professional productivity. This issue is important because a 4-day work week would allow people to have more fun, and, as we all know, fun is the most important thing in life. This book contains one interesting idea after another for improving our antiquated systems which are failing under our current gerontocracy. I look forward to more writings by Mr. Santens as he strives to disabuse society of its outdated concepts about money, the economy, and time. Bravo, Mr. Santens. Bravo.