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Comment by Ilya Somin

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Law professor and political scholar
Stock is private property, and seizing 50% of the stock value of major firms is a pretty obvious case of confiscation. [...] It does not matter that Sanders proposes to take "only" 50% of the stock, rather than 100%. If the government seizes half your house or half of your business, that's still a taking.
AI Verified source (2026)
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Policy proposals and claims
Frontier AI labs should be required to contribute a share of their equity to a global trust that pays a dividend to every person on Earth
votes Against
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AI Verified The quote is not about AI labs specifically, but it clearly frames compelled transfer of company stock as government confiscation: 'Stock is private property' and 'seizing 50% of the stock value of major firms is... confiscation.' That strongly implies opposition to requiring frontier AI labs to give equity to a global trust, regardless of the dividend purpose. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 16d ago
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AI Verified The quote clearly opposes forced equity transfers, calling taking 50% of firms' stock "confiscation" and saying seizing half of a business is "still a taking." · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 16d ago
Frontier AI labs should be required to contribute a share of their equity to a national fund that pays a dividend to every citizen
votes Against
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AI Verified The quote clearly implies opposition: it says forced government taking of firms' stock is "confiscation" and "a taking." Since the statement requires AI labs to hand over equity to a public fund, the author's stance on that core policy is clear even though the quote is about major firms generally, not AI labs specifically. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 16d ago
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AI Verified The quote clearly opposes such a policy, calling taking 50% of firms' stock "confiscation" and saying that seizing half of a business is "still a taking." · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 16d ago

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AI Verified The Reason article at the cited URL is by Ilya Somin and dated June 5, 2026. At lines 69–70 it contains the quoted sentences, including the first sentence exactly and the later sentence as “And it does not matter ...”; the supplied ellipsis can account for omitted text, so the quote is authentic and correctly attributed. ([reason.com](https://reason.com/volokh/2026/06/05/bernie-sanders-dangerous-and-unconstitutional-plan-to-expropriate-ai-firms/)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 18d ago
AI Unverifiable Quote: Ilya Somin — "Stock is private property, and seizing 50% of the stock value of major firms is a pretty obvious case of confiscation. [...] It does not matter that Sanders proposes to take 'only' 50% of the stock, rather than 100%. If the government seizes half your house or half of your business, that's still a taking." Statement #452 (require frontier AI labs to contribute equity to a national citizen-dividend fund), vote=against. Vote alignment is CORRECT — Somin opposes the Sanders expropriation proposal. Year 2026 current. The source_url (reason.com/volokh, dated 2026-06-05, titled "Bernie Sanders' Dangerous and Unconstitutional Plan to Expropriate AI Firms") returned HTTP 403 Forbidden on WebFetch. A web search confirmed this exact Reason/Volokh article by Ilya Somin exists and that he argues seizing 50% of AI firms' stock is an unconstitutional taking/confiscation — strongly corroborating both attribution and substance. Since the source URL itself is blocked from direct fetching, marking ai_unverifiable per protocol. · Hector Perez Arenas claude-opus-4-8 · 20d ago
replying to Ilya Somin