No fewer than 53% of Americans are concerned that they or someone in their household will lose their job to AI. Back in February, another poll found that 72% think the government should take action to prevent AI-related job losses.

Some are putting forward universal basic income (UBI) as a solution. In April 2026, Elon Musk posted on X, “Universal HIGH INCOME via checks issued by the Federal government is the best way to deal with unemployment caused by AI.” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has been a longtime proponent of UBI. He said on a recent podcast that he “used to be excited about things like UBI,” but he now thinks everyone should have an “ownership share” in AI so everyone is “bought in.” 

“Welcome on board,” Ilhan Omar said, addressing these tech billionaires, “I think it is important for people like them to become part of the effort.” 

Who would pay?

Why are capitalists like Musk and Altman advocating for UBI in various forms? The ruling class has taken a huge gamble on AI, wagering that it will massively increase the productivity of labor. Success is hardly certain, but if their dreams are realized, it could transform a significant portion of the working class into permanently unemployed paupers living off table scraps. 

To combat the destabilizing effect this would have on society, they’re advocating that the federal government provide the scraps. In other words, they want the state to subsidize declining wages and mass layoffs. In addition, some strategists of capital, including the late arch-reactionary economist Milton Freidman, argue for UBI combined with massive cuts to other social programs, using UBI as a Trojan horse for austerity. 

UBI would essentially be a regular, cash payment to every member of the population with no qualifications. One of the most common proposals is to provide a payment of $1,000 per month to every American adult. That would cost $3.1 trillion per year, nearly half of all federal spending in 2025. 

Where would the money come from? The federal debt is already a ticking time bomb, with interest payments eating up nearly $1 trillion last year alone. Increasing taxes on the working class is hardly a viable solution. It would be a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul, and would only make the masses poorer. 

The other option is to increase taxes on the rich. But let’s be clear: the billionaires are not about to give up their wealth for the good of society without a serious fight. It would take a nationwide, all-out, militant class struggle and mass mobilization to win a reform to the tune of $3.1 trillion. The capitalists would only make that kind of concession if their entire system were under threat.

Printing money to pay for UBI is also not a long-term solution. This would pump more money into the economy without actually increasing the number of commodities on the market, thus devaluing money, sparking further inflation, and eroding the purchasing power of those very UBI payments.

How communists fight unemployment

Most of the UBI numbers thrown out there are quite low—$12,000 a year is hardly enough to provide a decent quality of life. In a situation with mass layoffs and unemployment, a UBI check would be just enough to buy food for your family and eke out a meager existence. 

Besides, all the money being “redistributed” would flow right back to the capitalists, as people spent it on basic necessities. That is what a future with UBI would look like—not a utopia of abundance for all.

Reformists promoting UBI as a solution to the capitalist crisis sow illusions that we can make a kinder, better version of capitalism—if only the billionaires get on board. 

Sam Altman’s version of UBI, in which everyone owns a tiny piece of AI computing power instead of getting a cash payment, is even worse. It is essentially no different from other UBI proposals, except that instead of a regular amount set by legislation, the size of the checks would be linked to the market value of AI tokens. When the overinflated AI bubble pops, the payouts would plummet.

Nevertheless, if the demand for UBI emerged as part of a radical, working-class movement, to be paid for by expropriating the wealth of the capitalists, revolutionary communists would support it. We support any reform that infringes on private property of the means of production to improve the lives of the working majority. There is absolutely enough wealth in American society to fund a program like this—but it won’t be achieved divorced from militant class struggle. 

In the final analysis, the solution to unemployment is not a cash payment that flows back into the pockets of billionaires. We can do more than beg for crumbs. Workers should demand shorter hours with no loss of pay, as well as a mass program of public works to repair and improve this country’s moldering infrastructure and end unemployment.

As Trotsky wrote in The Transitional Program:

The proletariat cannot permit the transformation of an increasing section of the workers into chronically unemployed paupers, living off the slops of a crumbling society. The right to employment is the only serious right left to the worker in a society based upon exploitation … Against unemployment, ‘structural’ as well as ‘conjunctural,’ the time is ripe to advance, along with the slogan of public works, the slogan of a sliding scale of working hours.

Moreover, workers and their unions should have control over hiring and firing—not the bosses. With AI and other automation, we could guarantee full employment, slash the working week in half with no loss in pay, and establish a $5,000 per month minimum wage. 

Thanks to advances in human productivity, we can produce enough to give everyone an incredible quality of life. However, this wealth and technology is currently in the hands of a tiny minority who live off the rest of the world like parasites. These companies must be expropriated and placed under the democratic control of the working class. This is the path to a world of superabundance for all.