UBI proposals serve a deceptive function in labor automation discourse—the proposal is positioned by tech elites as a progressive solution while its function is to obscure key decisions being made by the powerful about technology and work. By portraying technological displacement as inevitable rather than socially determined, tech leaders’ championing of UBI serves to pigeonhole the state into a subsidy mechanism that absorbs the social costs of automation through redistribution and taxation, while still concentrating ownership over technology, production, and data. This arrangement sidesteps democratic engagement with technological change—questions of how automation unfolds, who decides and benefits, and how implementation can truly advance innovation, productivity, and human flourishing.

Beyond Redistribution: Rethinking UBI and the politics of automation - LPE Project