Musk: Universal HIGH INCOME via checks issued by the Federal government is the best way to deal with unemployment caused by AI.

X.com ^ | 4/17/2026 | Elon Musk

[Callahan]

Universal HIGH INCOME via checks issued by the Federal government is the best way to deal with unemployment caused by AI.

AI/robotics will produce goods & services far in excess of the increase in the money supply, so there will not be inflation.

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TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: ai; communism; modernmonetarytheory; moneyprinting; musk; muskworship; redistribution; ubi; uhi; unemployment

[Persevero]

No concept of economics. Sorry Elon you are dead wrong

[Brian Griffin]

“You boomers are either too stupid....”

Learn to bake a cake if you don’t want to be eating crumbs off someone else’s plate.

Become self-employed.

Do something needed in many areas of the country.

The majority of people buying houses on my street work as tradesmen.

[Brian Griffin]

“You boomers are either too stupid or too stubborn....”

Be patient, grasshopper.

Have you no older house-owningrelative that likes you?

[Reynoldo]

Then everyone can be above average.😃💲

[catnipman]

complete nonsense; where are the trillions to be given away by the Feds to come from? obviously not from taxes since the money will be given away to non-earners ... oh yeah, right, it’ll be “borrowed” from the Fed Reserve Bank in exchange for Fed IOUs ... that can’t possibly create runaway inflation, right, elon?

[catnipman]

“Universal HIGH INCOME via checks issued by the Federal government “

HIGH INCOME? SWEET! i’m putting in for a cool million bucks a month right now for my HIGH INCOME!

[Frank Drebin]

Nobody knows what is going to happen with “AI” and jobs. One thing is certain though, humans and their basic needs never change. People never go out of business. Anything said to the contrary is complete drivel.

[LilFarmer]

Agreed

I have one child who works a trade, I am not worried about him. The other is in a hospitality/service field - I know people think robots will take over that, but I feel pretty confident having gone back part time to work as a hostess, that people want a human touch. I don’t think that will change anytime soon.

God help us if it does.

[virgil]

The lessons of history, confirmed by the evidence immediately before me, show conclusively that continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fibre.

I agree with that. I don't like the government handouts, but what are people going to do? It's why I think AI will not be good for society overall. I don't see how capitalism can survive AI. It will lead to oligarchy. I hope I'm wrong, but I think Elon may be right. 🙁

[DiogenesLamp]

The amount of investment being put into Ai makes no sense until the end goal is replacing—not supplementing—replacing ALL labor. That is what Musk is talking about. Whatever you do today to make money eventually will little to know value because all labor will be performed by intelligent machines. This is what they are aiming for, whether you believe it will happen or not.

This is a scenario my nephew and I talked about decades ago, but I have a darker take on it.

Yes, machines will eventually be able to do pretty much everything people can do, and we will need very few people to manage the machines.

The rest of humanity will be a parasite class, and over time, the leadership is going to wonder why they put up with these "useless eaters."

And that doesn't even consider if the machines decide to get rid of the people!

People should have some serious misgivings about the direction we are going. It's not like we haven't had many movies (Like Terminator) warning us about what could happen.

[DiogenesLamp]

Something’s going to need to already be in place to assist with the material needs of all the newly unemployed and unemployable.

I believe they call them "Death Camps."

[rdcbn1]

Not well intended at all - total self business interest.

We are in the midst of 4th industrial revolution .

In previous industrial revolution's economic pressure forced buggy whip makers to re tool to become auto suppers and carriage makers became body work makers for autos.

Timken went from making carriage parts to industrial bearings

AI is the most empowering technology in human history and it makes things that were once hard and slow very easy and fast.

This will enable displaced workers to start new companies of their own in a dynamic economy.

If we give people a basic wage they become video game playing stoners instead of entrepreneurs.

Elon Musk's brave new world sees see universal income funded idle drones as cash cow customers and revenue streams for his enterprises and he right;y sees motivated entrepreneurs are potential competitors who can leverage advanced technology to to compete with his economy of scale

This Star Trek economy fantasy is bull shit.

All big established companies need to protect their investment from lean , hungry innovators. Musk wants to kill entrepreneurs by killing entrepreneurial spirit of potential competitors by eliminated economic pressure to keep idle people from becoming competitors

[DiogenesLamp]

Elon is off Asperber’s meds if he is on any in this bizarre suggestion of UBI maxi Socialist and anti-reality post of “digital” production of “products”. What products needed for human life are “produced” by the digital fabrication world of AI. Answer— churning digital “transactions” proving nothing real produced except...fake “currency”, and he thinks it should all come from “government”== which is, in our Constitutional Republic.... us, the People who assent to do so.

I think this idea is from his exposure to South African culture, which is far more socialist than is American culture.

A friend and I talked about Brits coming over here. He said he just realized they would all vote for more socialism! I said "Yeah, pretty much everyone in the world would, except perhaps the Poles and some Eastern bloc nations."

The rest of the world is more socialist than we are, and this is why I have misgivings about allowing any of them into the country.

[DiogenesLamp]

You boomers are either too stupid or too stubborn to see the fact that when you make most if not all of the actual fighting age male and female population not just unemployed but forever unemployable you will get armed revolution every time.

You think you can sit and collect social security and retirement while the younger generations are put out to.pasture as surplus. The first group put to the wall will be the olders who are seen as the root cause regardless of if they actually are.

What a silly little rant. As if "boomers" were the cause of this, as opposed to it being a normal aspect of the exponential type growth technology has been exhibiting for the last century.

If the robots take over, it will be everybody against the wall, not just boomers.

We are on a highway to hell, and nobody knows how to get off of it. Do you?

[wardaddy]

Freepers can always go negative lol
Over anything

I’m not that personality

Musk has been pretty vocal his intentions to bring freedom to information

[ETCM]

UBI = Total dependence on government

Total dependence on government = total obedience to government

To paraphrase an unattributed quote:

“A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have.”

Much of America is already there. Welfare = UBI. Medicaid = UBI. Many/most retirees are not much different (despite feeling entitled to what they paid into), dependent on Social Security and Medicare.

[Fledermaus]

Drivel

[SisterK]

If it sounds too good to be true.....

[SisterK]

Welfare destroys the soul..

yep
it is totally unbiblical

[Fresh Wind]

Always believe anything Elon says. He has assured us that he “knows more about manufacturing than anyone currently alive on Earth”.