Jay W. Richards on Implement a universal basic income

Jay W. Richards

Vice president of social and domestic policy and senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

The new AI prophets of doom suffer from a failure of imagination. They simply cannot envision what work the future will bring, so they conclude it will bring none. In the real world, Washington would stack a UBI atop existing programs, adding trillions to a budget already careening toward insolvency.

AI Verified (May 22, 2026)

Source:

Jay W. Richards, quoted in Faiz Siddiqui, “AI leaders see mass job loss coming. They want government’s help solving it,” The Washington Post, May 22, 2026.