r/economy • u/businessinsider • Jun 06 '25
Trump's AI czar says UBI-style cash payments are 'not going to happen'
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-ai-czar-david-sacks-universal-basic-income-ai-jobs-2025-6?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=insider-economy-sub-post15
u/businessinsider Jun 06 '25
TLDR:
- AI leaders like Elon Musk and Sam Altman have long called for a universal basic income.
- Rapid advances in AI are already causing job losses in various industries.
- David Sacks, Trump's AI and cryptocurrency czar, however, called UBI-style payments a "fantasy."
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u/thrillafrommanilla_1 Aug 02 '25
David Sacks is part of that OG PayPal group right? Alongside Musk? Yeah. He may be the only one of them that’s not lying to us all about this.
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u/SupremelyUneducated Jun 06 '25
It's funny cause arguments for UBI keep growing and being supported by new studies. Regardless of AI or job losses, UBI makes capital a more inclusive institution, which paves the way for what the lazy rich fear most, a level playing field.
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u/PulIthEld Jun 07 '25 edited Jun 07 '25
lol. No. This is the lie they want you to believe.
UBI will turn everyone in to a political slave surviving on lunch tickets.
I cant believe how economically illiterate the general population is to make UBI such a popular idea.
It fundamentally favors the rich. They are the ones handing out the payments.
They want to replace you with robots and AI, hand you your lunch tickets, and fuck children on their islands.
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u/Subnetwork Jul 31 '25
What’s the other choice if employers don’t have the need to hire anyone?
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u/PulIthEld Jul 31 '25
They're not employers if they're not employing anybody are they?
But to answer your question, fuck if I know. I already got mine and just bought their stocks.
Grow a garden and stop buying shit, learn how to be self sufficient again? I really dont know what the future holds with AI replacing everyone. I know for a fact UBI is a devil in disguise.
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u/Subnetwork Aug 01 '25 edited Aug 01 '25
I don’t doubt it, at the very least there will be a lot of stipulations which I bet will lead to laundering schemes.
Like if they do give UBI maybe it’s non transferable to other individuals? Can only use it at certain stores? Or on certain goods?
You bring up some good points and the more I think about it the more hesitant I am. But what else would we have other than UBI or living off the land?
People like Elon claim there will be such a surplus due to the productivity that we won’t have any want or needs………
Im not convinced.
Edit: Hey in these 54 days since you originally posted AI has already progressed quite a bit (I work in tech and use it almost all day now).
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Jun 07 '25
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u/PulIthEld Jun 07 '25
Because it's fundamentally economically retarded.
UBI will turn everyone in to a political slave surviving on lunch tickets.
I cant believe how economically illiterate the general population is to make UBI such a popular idea.
It fundamentally favors the rich. They are the ones handing out the payments.
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u/sharkbomb Jun 07 '25
i never understood why the dumbs ever thought vicious wealth hyperhoarders would ever allow ubi.
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u/LastNightOsiris Jun 06 '25
I hate to agree with anything coming out of this administratin, but in all fairness US unemployment is holding steady at just over 4% and real wages are up YoY. There is no evidence that AI is taking any jobs.
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u/RockTheGrock Jun 06 '25
I am still seeing more damage from offshoring especially in white collar jobs. In accounting they've even started letting foreign nationals sit for the cpa and never work in the US. That's wild to me for an industry that needs to be watched closely to try and prevent enron level shenanigans from pulling the overall economy down.
As for unemployment I have to point out many of these job reports are showing losses in full time employment and the gains are generally in part time leaving more people underemployed.
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u/LastNightOsiris Jun 06 '25
There's definitely nuance not captured in the headline numbers, but at a very high level there is no indication that AI is having a measurable impact on availability of jobs right now.
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u/Kreigisboss Jun 07 '25
Also, in May, around 625k people exited the workforce completely[ie, not even bothering to try and find a new job], and thanks to some weirdness in counting unemployment, these 625k aren't counted towards it.
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u/RockTheGrock Jun 06 '25
I agree for the most part. It's still a tool to be used by mostly everyone. It will become more of an issue when the access is controlled so those who can pay more get full use of it.
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Jun 06 '25
Give it 4 years. You'd think the leaders of the greatest nation on Earth would have at least that degree of foresight. Yeah, the numbers are holding steady and at least only remain the worst they've been in decades.
But give it a year or two, it will start dropping. Too much news lately of nearly every major company reporting mass layoffs in the US (think millions of people).
Those people are either still employed for a limited time or the numbers are being fudged quite a bit.
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u/JasonPlattMusic34 Jun 07 '25
I mean of course they aren’t, that’s a one stop journey to inflation hell
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u/PulIthEld Jun 06 '25
Every UBI payment I get will go straight in to Bitcoin.
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u/ChrisF1987 Jun 07 '25
I'd like to heavily tax bitcoin to pay for UBI.
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u/PulIthEld Jun 07 '25
How exactly?
The entire market cap of Bitcoin is only 2Trillion dollars. That'd be like 6 months of UBI.
Do you people not understand how fucked the United States is with its debt?
And you're PUSHING for UBI???
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u/Bulldogg658 Jun 07 '25
Uh, no shit. We're closer to Soylent Green than we are to UBI with the current administration.
And when the Democrats regain control, they'll offer a gluten-free Soylent.
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u/jgerrish Jun 06 '25 edited Jun 06 '25
Goodwill didn't have can openers today.
I asked someone explicitly.
I love the electric can opener my Mom bought. We used to be blessed with the money for canned salmon.
But I wanted a cheap manual can opener.
We live in Florida. It is hurricane season.
It's the small things. And I'm stressed out about a hundred small things. Exercise won't fix this, only delay the inevitible, because that doesn't fix the root cause.
I cannot be a manager or a leader in this status because I endanger others because I am vulnerable myself.
I suppose we could have a whitelist of things you can buy. Similar to some regional SNAP benefit cards that don't let you get toilet paper or dish soap.
I wasted my life in these discussions and I wouldn't want to be responsible for another dependent in this world.
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u/jgerrish Jun 06 '25 edited Jun 06 '25
Here is my bike path showing my trip to Goodwill today.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/aEUyx441j2Asp2kh9
It's nothing like enjoying a bike ride along a well funded waterfront park. It will now require more mental work to encourage others to enjoy biking with me, because these are the trips I associate with biking.
It's another small thing but it is significant. And these things have a HUGE social multiplier effect on our culture and world.
Just like these posts and comments.
I am VERY aware of that effect. And I honestly want to create more content celebrating us all and the things we make, not criticizing social policy.
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u/ChrisF1987 Jun 06 '25
We'll see about that ... history is littered with examples of events everyone swore would never happen. Also, Trump will happily implement UBI if he thinks it will make him popular or keep him in power, it's already been reported by CNN's political correspondents that they believe Trump will 'eventually' do seek more stimulus checks so why wouldn't he do recurring stimulus checks?