Can the Welfare State Survive AI?

Abstract

Abstract:In hotel ballrooms across Iowa on the eve of the state's 2020 caucuses, members of the Yang Gang handed out fake $1,000 bills with the face of presidential candidate Andrew Yang and the emblazoned words "FREEDOM DIVIDEND." This funny money was kitsch, but what it represented was, even for those who knew better, a little exciting. Yang's campaign proposed that starting at age eighteen, every U.S. citizen would receive $1,000 a month from the federal government, no strings attached. Technological progress, he insisted, made universal basic income (UBI) necessary. Gone were the dangerous tropes of welfare queens, deadbeat dads, and the undeserving poor; instead, Yang, founder of the nonprofit Venture for America, told his audience to "just Google" a self-driving truck hauling 40,000 pounds of butter across the country. Think of the drivers, motel workers, and chefs at roadside diners all put out of work, he warned. The robots were coming for all of our jobs, so we needed a universalist welfare state.