Unlike most crowdfunders, Santens is not asking for seed money for a specific project, like a tech startup, a nonprofit organization, or a feature film. Nor is he asking for money for a specific problem like unpaid medical bills. He’s asking for free money to live his life. Any additional money that he crowdfunds, above $1,000 per month, will be donated to other basic-income activists who are doing the same thing. However, he will keep other money that he earns from working as a freelance writer. He says the same thing would happen with a government-funded basic income: People would keep the additional money they earn from their jobs.

So he thinks the government should provide him a basic income, but gets other people to pay his expenses for him anyways? I think the article is cool, and I love the idea of automation enabling us to provide basic income to everyone (I have my doubts about practicality, since "26000 redditors" doesn't exactly dazzle me in terms of pragmatism), but hasn't he basically just tricked people into paying his expenses? How is this going to drum up support for their cause?