AI Titans Work Hard to Discourage Working

New studies demonstrate what should be obvious: Universal basic income programs kill initiative.

By Jason L. Riley. Excerpts:

"Weavers and bank tellers feared for their livelihoods at the time, but the Industrial Revolution led to significantly more hiring in the textile sector, and banks increased employment after ATMs were introduced."

"In recent years more than 150 basic-income pilot programs in 35 states have been initiated. One of the pilots, backed by Mr. Altman, began in 2020 and provided low-income participants in Texas and Illinois with $1,000 a month, while a control group received $50 a month. After three years of payments, researchers found that both groups worked slightly more—which may have resulted from the pilot’s starting during the pandemic and ending as the economy bounced back. But they also found that people who received $1,000 put in fewer hours on the job than people who received $50, suggesting that the higher payments provided a disincentive to work.

Last month, economist Kevin Corinth and Hannah Mayhew of the American Enterprise Institute released a survey of 122 basic-income pilots that took place between 2017 and 2025 in 33 states and the District of Columbia. They reported mixed results. Employment increased in some programs and decreased in others, and the role of the pandemic was difficult to assess.

The pilot programs varied “in their designs, data collection and study quality,” and only 30 of them provided employment outcomes. Hence, the authors counsel against sweeping policy conclusions based on the results. Most experiments were small, and the evaluations “rely exclusively on survey data and are thus subject to reporting bias and non-response bias.” Yet Mr. Corinth and Ms. Mayhew did find that the larger and more credible studies—such as the one Mr. Altman backed—showed that unearned income has a negative impact on a person’s willingness to work."

"President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty in 1964 launched the modern social safety net"

"The welfare system attempted to replace family breadwinners, but it turned out that those breadwinners were providing more than money. The result of these government interventions was more broken homes, antisocial behavior and blighted neighborhoods."