So...Bernie Sanders today proposed a one time tax on the AI industry of 50%, to create a structure of public ownership of the industry, allowing widespread public accountability, and opening up the idea of an alaska like Sovereign Wealth Fund. The idea is basically this, given AI is basically reshaping our economy on a mass scale and has the ability to massive change the economy and job market, all citizens should have a say in how the industry is run, and everyone deserves a share of the profits. I largely support this in theory, and this is theoretically one of the most based ideas Bernie has come up with.
However, digging into the proposal, the cracks do form. The article mentions some cracks like the fact that AI isn't profitable currently. THere's the potential for capital flight if we start just socializing the assets of the industry.
I asked chatgpt how much in profits this would generate a year. Currently it's close to around $50-100 billion....not enough to fund a UBI. With 250 million adults, that's $200-400 a year per adult. It could become MUCH larger over time, reaching over a trillion, but even with a trillion, that's only $4,000 a year, and by then with population growth it might only be closer to $3,000 if there are say 333 million adults by then (assuming around 400-450 million people in the country, this is decades from now).
The point is, this idea sounds a lot nicer in theory than it does in practice. I love the idea aesthetically, but the reality of it wouldnt be able to fund a UBI, let alone a hypothetical "universal high income." At least not any time soon. So....nice proposal, but eh....not super workable if the idea is to provide an income stream for the masses to live on without working.
No comments:
Post a Comment