Universelles Grundeinkommen, die utopische Idee, die im Silicon Valley wieder auflebt
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2026/06/14/universal-basic-income-the-utopian-idea-resurging-in-silicon-valley_6754473_23.html
Universelles Grundeinkommen, die utopische Idee, die im Silicon Valley wieder auflebt
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2026/06/14/universal-basic-income-the-utopian-idea-resurging-in-silicon-valley_6754473_23.html
33 Kommentare
They are lying.
The tech billionaires say “we will give you UBI if you hand all power to us.” But what do they do with the power they have now? They fund politicians whose sole aim is to get rid of existing welfare so that the rich can get tax cuts!
What’s the chances of the billionaires levying an enormous tax increase on themselves to fund this UBI when all they do is the opposite?
I see the only scenario of them being interested in UBI is because they finally found a way to distract people with it while they create AI superweapons.
Switzerland has this now. I suppose Switzerland is utopia.
Fuck those idiots , this has been an idea for 100 years more ; they will find a way to fuck it up
So they fight tooth and nail to avoid having to pay a living wage now when they still mostly need us, but the instant they dont need us anymore, they are going to give us money for free. Sure. That seems likely.
Snark aside, what you have to remember is most of the existing trials and theories about UBI are considering a very low UBI payout. Its like the low limit of social security payments in the US. So its enough to keep the wolves from the door. I saw Elon Musk started to use the term „High value UBI“ or something when he realized trying to sell people on starvation level assistance probably wasnt going to be enough to keep the grifts going. So they realize they have to change the narrative for this to match up to the whole start trek utopian future they want you to believe in .
Its all lies. All of it.
That is called self-preservation. AI is threatening to take away Millions of jobs leaving a country full of very upset poor and unemployed people. That is fertile ground for radical left-wing political thought.
Nonono – if it’s “resurging” in Silicon Valley you’re guaranteed that just means they found a way to twist it into another never fulfilled promise to hold over the investors and pump the line up somehow, or that their “UBI” is basic dystopia of “we keep everything, you get credits to spend at our everything”
*Regardless* of whether we create a UBI, we need proper taxation and proper regulations, specifically around AI development and infrastructure.
The most successful country in the history of the world was the United States in the 1950s with a marginal tax rate of *90%*.
Tax the rich.
Lmao, they spend decades and billions of dollars literally painting any government assistance as socialism. Now that they realize they need us they’re pretending they’ll give us UBI? Sucks for them, no one likes or trusts them. Maybe they should have worked with the people from the start instead of being actual super villains?
It’s not going to happen. We can’t even get single payer healthcare and people think billionaires, the Epstein class, and the politicians they control are just going to give people money? Laughable.
UBI is a good policy if executed and structured properly, but can be absolutely fatal if implemented wrongly, and something (common sense) tells me I can’t trust their version of it
In Brazil, they have a kind of universal basic income. But politicians use income raises to gain votes from the poor.
Therefore, I think it is undemocratic.
Brazil also suffers from high inflation, which may be the partly attributable to this policy. Not enough tax revenue to make payments require going into debt.
Since UBI is attributed to the amount of money you “report”. People can work in cash and then not report it to receive full UBI.
The tech oligarchs will never self-govern or share. It is not in their nature. Instead they will use their immense power and resources to suppress us.
So let me get this straight: extremely unprofitable companies run by extremely greedy people that basically pay zero taxes will give everyone free money once their companies completely destroy the economy?
Until there’s actual legislation and it’s approved this is a pipe dream.
They throw the idea out when they start getting nervous about the masses coming for them or when there’s a possibility their taxes might get raised.
I don’t think UBI as it might come to exist is very „utopian“.
We don’t refer to the situation where Walmart workers all receive some form of government assistance as „utopian“. We view that as a perverse way for Walmart to funnel government benefits to itself, and ultimately it’s billionaire owners; while keeping its employees poor but also too busy to participate in any kind of collective action.
The kind of UBI any silicon valley billionaire is going to allow is just the next iteration of the government -> private industry money pipeline. It will come with profound compromises to personal freedom and will further exacerbate inequality. We’ll be shocked at how bad it is; and that will be used to convince the public that UBI is bad.
The fact that people are even debating this … its so silly
It is wildly irresponsible to report on UBI as though it were inevitable. The oligarchs and billionaires who control our government barely pay taxes as it is. You think they are going to implement UBI without a fight?
These same people are threatening to move out of the state to avoid the one time billionaire tax. Who’s going to pay for this?
Lies to get the masses on board with AI and robotics which the ultra wealthy need so they never really have to deal with peasants ever again. They will be floating on their private islands, tended to by robot servants, and guarded by drone swarms.
My biggest counter to UBI being a fix is having dealt with nyc landlords. If people know you are getting X, they will just charge you X. Having a system where you don’t have other controls on costs or means to oppose greed is destined to fail.
Right now people who want to charge you stuff at least need to estimate what you can and will pay.
These ideas have been a part of AGI discussions for decades, decades. Those people who have been most publicly discussing these ideas, are all working in AI. They are the true believers – these aren’t all billionaires who own the companies, these are researchers, philosophers, safety related specialists, economists, etc.
Let’s try to actually take this seriously, finally – please. Let’s not do that thing where we just try to make snarky, pessimistic, cynical comments.
Let me try to start a real conversation about it! For example – what do people think about the idea of being provided income, vs being provided compute vs being provided shares? How do we think this can work in a global environment?
Start with public, universal healthcare. Until my government can manage that, UBI is a capitalism-wolf in sheep’s clothing.
This will be considered again because of the recently introduced legislation that aims to employ a one-time 50% tax on AI companies that would be used to create a US sovereign wealth fund to provide welfare for all Americans. They’d much rather sprinkle a few crumbs on the floor than share their plate.
I hate it, but I also feel like UBI is inevitable. What do we do when a substantial segment of the population can no longer provide labor of material value?
A lot of the dystopian novels (Red Rising, Hunger Games) assume that in the distant future there would be some value in enslaving large segments of the population. I don’t see it. So, please tell me I’m wrong, but I think it’s UBI or genocide.
I mean, in the past you could always work the fields or sweep the floors or feed the pigs or hold a spear or something, but we *will* get to a point where unskilled human labor just isn’t valuable. It isn’t worth reaching into the urinal to pick out a penny.
(And for the inevitable comments about how holding a spear or working the fields is actually very skilled labor, try not to miss the forest for the trees.)
That’s one way to stop a popular people’s party from seizing AI shares to benefit the people instead of just the rich and the arms manufacturers
UBI is just a way to distract from the fact AI was trained on the world’s data for free. The academics know it and feel guilty about it, hence why they keep pushing this message. Ultimately opensource is the right answer to taking what millions built over centuries and trying to resell it back to the highest bidder.
Everyone should read „Manna“ by Marshall Brain if you want to get a taste of what this would look like.
AI: Since more humans mean more UBI is needed, the solution is to downside the human population.
Im sure giving all the power and money to billionaires and mega corps is a great idea! Its going to trickle down this time guys!
UBI is the moral relief valve that lets those doing damage to the rest of us to continue their work.
Unless UBI is permanently and irrevocably tied to inflation, its just a temporary bribe to distract people from the shredding of social safety nets.
UBI at this point seems like realistic public payola in exchange for us not burning their institutions down.