Elon Musk Proposes 'Universal Basic Income' to Address AI-Driven Unemployment

ME News reports that on April 17 (UTC+8), according to monitoring by Beating, Elon Musk posted on X that a "Universal High Income" (UHI), funded by government-issued checks, is the best way to address unemployment caused by AI. He believes that the products and services generated by AI and robotics will far outpace the growth of the money supply, and therefore will not trigger inflation. He has previously mentioned the concept of "Universal Basic Income" (UBI), but this time explicitly used the term "High Income," suggesting that AI-driven productivity gains will fundamentally transform the logic of wealth distribution. In his view, the future economic bottleneck will no longer be production capacity, but rather ensuring that workers displaced from traditional jobs retain sufficient purchasing power. This perspective continues his vision of a "post-scarcity era," in which robotic labor—such as Tesla’s Optimus—will drive the cost of goods to near zero, enabling social welfare far beyond subsistence levels. (Source: BlockBeats)