Americans would get ‘universal high income’ via steady federal checks under Elon Musk’s new proposal. Will it happen?

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk is erstwhile again weighing successful connected however to navigate a rapidly changing system — and this time, he's proposing a sweeping solution.

"Universal HIGH INCOME via checks issued by the Federal authorities is the champion mode to woody with unemployment caused by AI," Musk wrote successful a caller station connected X (1).

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The proposition comes arsenic the labour marketplace shifts nether the increasing power of artificial intelligence.

In 2025, AI was linked to astir 55,000 occupation cuts successful the U.S., according to consulting steadfast Challenger, Gray & Christmas (2). Major companies — including Amazon, Salesforce and Oracle — person chopped thousands of roles, citing AI arsenic a contributing factor.

The commencement of 2026 hasn't offered overmuch relief. Challenger estimates that astir 30,000 further jobs person already been mislaid to AI this twelvemonth (3).

Universal income, of course, isn't a caller idea. The astir wide discussed mentation — cosmopolitan basal income — involves providing each national with a regular currency payment, careless of employment presumption oregon income.

Musk's connection takes that conception a measurement further, suggesting not conscionable a basal income to screen necessities, but a precocious level of income distributed broadly crossed society.

One of the biggest sticking points successful proposals similar this has traditionally been inflation. Critics often reason that injecting ample amounts of wealth into the system risks driving up prices, particularly if request rises faster than supply.

Musk, however, says that whitethorn not use successful this case.

"AI/robotics volition nutrient goods & services acold successful excess of the summation successful the wealth supply, truthful determination volition not beryllium inflation," helium wrote.

In his view, advances successful automation and productivity could dramatically summation the proviso of goods and services — perchance offsetting the inflationary unit that mightiness different travel from a surge successful wealth circulating done the economy.

The connection appears to person struck a chord. At the clip of writing, Musk's station has garnered much than 68 cardinal views, on with 195,000 likes and 46,000 comments.

Some online responses person pushed backmost connected the premise. One wide liked reply questioned whether abundance would dilute the worth of wealth altogether, asking: "If wealth means nothing, what determines who gets the penthouse suite?"