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Leonora Barclay

UBI will make us miserable

It’s hard to avoid the constant prophecies of doom about how AI is going to take our jobs – with some of these already being borne out. However, AI leaders such as Elon Musk have declared that the population will be supported by Universal Basic Income (UBI) instead, in which the government will financially support everyone through the huge revenues produced by AI. “Universal HIGH INCOME via checks issued by the Federal government is the best way to deal with unemployment caused by AI,” Musk posted on X earlier this year. Musk imagines that we wouldn’t be unemployed but rather liberated – UBI would allow us to live without the mundane tasks of everyday life, like making PowerPoint presentations, writing emails or finding synergies in our deliverables.

Spotlight

Featured economics news and data.

Ryan Shorthouse

Cutting Britain’s giant welfare bill would be an act of kindness

Does having money really matter that much? There are those, usually with quite a bit of it, who want us to care less about materialism. But, unequivocally, money really does matter – not because of any status it supposedly brings, but for the freedom it buys: freedom to choose how we live and how we look after others. Considering this, it seems that the deep disillusionment with mainstream politicians in recent years stems from a protracted and ongoing period of stagnant living standards over which they have presided. But the truth is that the average person has not got poorer since the global financial crisis. They have got a little bit richer. Employment levels are still exceptionally high. And, both historically and internationally, we are a very rich country.

Friday

Freddy Gray

1,2,3,4 — Trump declares a trade war

‘Whatever complicates the world more — I do,’ Donald Trump once said. As President, that still seems to be his mantra. Everybody knows that he feels America has been ripped off for decades when it comes to global trade — and that he intends address imbalances that hurt his country wherever he can. But his abrupt decision to announce huge tariffs on steel and aluminium has sent shockwaves across the world. It has thrown global markets into a panic. It has caused division in his White House and put him at odds with his party establishment, which is ideologically committed to free trade and terrified of protectionism. It is vintage Trump, in other words. The great disruptor strikes again. So what is he doing?