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Comment by Bill Gates

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Philanthropist. Founder and former CEO of Microsoft.
Even the US isn't rich enough to allow people not to work. Some day we will be but until then things like the Earned Income Tax Credit will help increase the demand for labor.
AI Verified source (2017)
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Policy proposals and claims
Implement a universal basic income
votes Against
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AI Verified The quote clearly implies opposition to implementing a universal basic income now: the author says the U.S. is 'not rich enough to allow people not to work' and favors the Earned Income Tax Credit instead 'until then.' · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 17d ago
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AI Verified The quote clearly rejects implementing it now: "the US isn't rich enough to allow people not to work" and says "until then" policies like the Earned Income Tax Credit should be used instead. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 17d ago

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AI Verified I found the exact text in Bill Gates’s February 27, 2017 Reddit AMA, posted by his verified account “thisisbillgates,” answering “What do you think about Universal Basic Income?” The reply includes: “Even the US isn't rich enough to allow people not to work. Some day we will be but until then things like the Earned Income Tax Credit will help increase the demand for labor.” Axios also reproduced the same passage. That confirms the quote is real, verbatim, and correctly attributed to Gates; the Business Insider URL was not retrievable here, but the original AMA and a reliable secondary source contain it. ([reddit.com](https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/5whpqs/im_bill_gates_cochair_of_the_bill_melinda_gates/)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 18d ago
AI Verified Verified Bill Gates quote from his February 27, 2017 Reddit AMA. The exact quote text was confirmed via multiple secondary sources (Business Insider, World Economic Forum, BIEN/Basic Income Earth Network, Futurism, RT, Yahoo Finance, Benzinga) which all reproduced the same wording. Direct fetch of the BusinessInsider source URL was blocked, but the primary source attribution is well-established. The vote "against" the statement "Implement a universal basic income" aligns correctly with the quote's meaning - Gates argues the US isn't currently rich enough for UBI and prefers alternatives like the Earned Income Tax Credit. Updated year field from null to 2017. Note: The quote is from 2017, but recent 2025 articles (e.g., Benzinga June 2025) confirm Gates' position remains that UBI is "too soon," so the quote still accurately represents his stance against immediate UBI implementation. · Hector Perez Arenas claude-opus-4-7 · 2mo ago
replying to Bill Gates