{"id":47254,"date":"2025-09-12T14:17:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T14:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=47254"},"modified":"2025-09-12T14:17:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T14:17:12","slug":"in-the-ai-economy-universal-basic-income-cant-wait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=47254","title":{"rendered":"In the AI Economy, Universal Basic Income Can\u2019t Wait"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The rise of artificial intelligence and robotics is forcing us to face something we\u2019ve all sensed coming: millions of jobs are going to soon vanish. From factory floors to law offices, from truck driving to financial analysis, AI is learning to do our work faster, cheaper, and often better. This isn\u2019t a future problem \u2014 it\u2019s happening now. The real question is what we\u2019re going to do about it, because the old idea of tying survival to a paycheck is going to break.<\/p>\n

A lot of public personalities are offering big ideas. My own favorite solution is Universal Basic Income (UBI), which I have promoted for over a decade<\/a>. It\u2019s where everyone gets a guaranteed monthly cash payment from the government, no strings attached, enough to cover the basics. UC Berkeley Professor of Finance Emeritus, Mark Garman has suggested Universal Basic Capital, giving everyone income-producing assets and dividends via a superfund. XPrize founder Peter Diamandis on X recently promoted Universal Basic Ownership, where we all own a stake in the companies driving the AI revolution. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman talks about Universal Extreme Wealth<\/a>, where AI\u2019s productivity is so massive that everyone lives in abundance and luxury.<\/p>\n

These all have merit, and I like them all. But putting actual cash in people\u2019s pockets through UBI is still the most practical, immediate way to keep society stable as AI takes over more of the economy.<\/p>\n

UBI is simple. Everyone gets a monthly check \u2014 no hoops or bureaucracy. If desired, I\u2019d also support payments in crypto and using the blockchain<\/a>. Regardless, if machines are doing most of the work and generating the wealth, we should cut people in directly to the money earned. And this way, no one falls through the cracks because they didn\u2019t fill out the right form or meet some arbitrary requirement, as often happens in the welfare system. Ultimately, it\u2019s not just about survival \u2014it\u2019s about freedom. With basic financial security, people could spend more time creating, learning, caring for loved ones, or simply living without the constant grind.<\/p>\n

Critics of UBI raise cost, inflation, or the fear that people will stop working. But real-world trials \u2014 from Alaska\u2019s oil dividend to pilot programs around the world \u2014\u00a0tell a different story. People don\u2019t suddenly become lazy. Most keep working, start businesses, or invest in skills. What changes is that they\u2019re less stressed, healthier, and more willing to take productive risks.<\/p>\n

Alternatives to UBI<\/h2>\n

Mark Garman\u2019s Universal Basic Capital<\/a> has appeal. Giving people a stake in a superfund derived from assets in automation-dependent businesses could build long-term wealth and make everyone a participant in market gains. It\u2019s a way to fix the imbalance between those living off capital gains and those living off wages. But markets crash. Dividends dry up. And setting up accounts, teaching financial literacy, and managing assets adds complexity that UBI avoids.<\/p>\n

Peter Diamandis\u2019s promotion of Universal Basic Ownership<\/a> is attractive too: let\u2019s all directly own part of the AI-driven companies and automated industries of the future. That aligns the public\u2019s interests with technological progress and could turn the whole country into shareholders. But convincing existing companies to give away significant equity is a steep climb. And even if they did, ownership stakes don\u2019t reliably pay the rent without selling them.<\/p>\n

Sam Altman\u2019s Universal Extreme Wealth<\/a> is the boldest vision \u2014 a future so abundant that everyone lives like today\u2019s multi-millionaires. AI drives the cost of goods and services close to zero, and money becomes less important because everything is nearly free. It\u2019s inspiring, but far off. We can\u2019t bet the next 10 or 20 years on a perfect utopia showing up exactly when we need it \u2014though I support the long term idea.<\/p>\n

Spreading the wealth<\/h2>\n

All these ideas share the same moral core: if AI is going to create unimaginable wealth, it can\u2019t just pile up in a few corporate bank accounts. It has to be spread broadly or society will fracture when the jobless pick up pitchforks and revolt. But UBI is the one that can work now, to keep people worry free.<\/p>\n

First, it\u2019s about liquidity. People who lose their jobs to automation don\u2019t need a stock portfolio \u2014they need money for groceries and rent this month. Second, it\u2019s simple. You can send cash to people today without building new systems from scratch. Third, it respects individual choice<\/a>. People can decide for themselves whether to pay off debt, take a class, help their family, or start a side hustle.<\/p>\n

The beauty of UBI is that it doesn\u2019t block us from trying other models later. We can start with cash security, then layer in investment capital, shared ownership, crypto projects, or new distribution systems. It\u2019s the safety net that makes everything else possible.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not against a future of universal ownership or extreme wealth. I\u2019d love to see it. But while we wait for that future \u2014 and hope it works out the way we think \u2014 UBI can make sure no one is left behind. It can keep the economy stable<\/a> and buy time to build whatever comes next.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t about \u201cfree money\u201d in the pejorative sense. It\u2019s about recognizing that in a world where machines can produce nearly everything, our sense of human worth has to be separated from having a job. Direct cash is the fastest, cleanest, and fairest way to make sure AI\u2019s benefits reach everyone, not just the handful of people who own the machines.<\/p>\n

If we get this right \u2014 if we make the AI revolution work for all of us \u2014then maybe the abundance Sam Altman talks about won\u2019t just be a dream. It could be the natural next step.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The rise of artificial intelligence and robotics is forcing us to face something we\u2019ve all sensed coming: millions of jobs are going to soon vanish. From factory floors to law offices, from truck driving to financial analysis, AI is learning to do our work faster, cheaper, and often better. This isn\u2019t a future problem \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-47254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47254\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}