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Right now, in various industries and fields around the globe, businesses employ human beings to carry out administrative tasks, customer service roles, and other office positions. AI is creeping into the office, with employers seeking to exploit it to enhance productivity. All well and good, except the quickest way for companies to improve productivity is to remove the human element from the loop. AI doesn’t need to be paid. If it looks like it can do the same work, to a similar quality, those higher up the ranks will rub their hands with glee at all the money they can save on wages. Profit margins soar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or do they? This is a short-term benefit. If people are out of work, they aren’t going to spend money. In the UK, we have something called Universal Credit. It exists to pay people who are out of work, or unable to work (a bit of a simplification, but that’s its broad purpose). It is a government welfare scheme. It’s a necessity for people to survive, and hardly replaces the income from a job. With more people placed upon it in the wake of AI layoffs, the pressure on this system will rise. After all, the pot of gold is not infinite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What some of the pro-AI supporters on Twitter have argued is that as more and more people are laid off, UBI – Universal Basic Income – will kick in. One such supporter even suggested that it will grant people time to play video games in comfort instead of having to work:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n@BenBerwickGB Because when you don\u2019t have to slave away in a factory you can spend time playing GTA 6\u2014 Chris (@ChrisGPT) November 8, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Now, the question becomes: who pays for UBI?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Where it all gets Wishy-Washy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n
\nPhoto by Krizjohn Rosales on Pexels.com<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n Those of you who follow this blog know I am greatly in favour of ending the exploitation of the working class by the rich and powerful elite. I am no fan of big corporations, who are steadily poisoning our planet and engaging in unchecked wage theft. In the past, I have argued passionately that the means exist to tackle issues like homelessness and poverty, and there is certainly enough in the pot to pay people a decent, living wage. There are tons of excuses as to why there is so much inertia around all this, but it all comes back to the fundamental problem of greed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Greed would be why companies replace people with AI. Greed would deter them from funding any form of UBI, and without cooperation from the wealthy, how would UBI get funded? We’re not talking about paying existing workers a bit more in order to provide stability (and with luck, circulate that pay back into the economy). We’re talking about funding a large group of people displaced from work, so that they can survive<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There certainly isn’t going to be an immediate desire from the elite to fund this. Government intervention would be required to make it work, even at a basic level, and even then, is there really going to be enough funding so that everyone can sit around playing GTA VI (as per ChrisGPT’s pithy suggestion)? How much of a hit to profits does Chris expect businesses to take? What is he expecting of governments? How does UBI get funded, especially since there would be resistance, least of all to a degree where everyone can live comfortable, fulfilling lives?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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