One AI Dividend: A Proposal for Funding Universal Basic Income Through AI Taxes

Summary

The interactive policy explainer presents a hypothetical “AI Dividend” funded by placing a 10% value-added tax on every sale involving animals, robots, and AI agents. The fund would pay every adult a monthly dividend, with example settings of $1,000, $3,000, or $5,000. For a population of 250 million adults, the $3,000 option would require $3.0 trillion annually, described on the page as 10% of GDP and 58% of federal revenue; the page lists federal revenue at about $5.2 trillion and GDP at about $30 trillion. A January transaction story follows one payment as it moves through the economy, illustrating the claim that the dividend can replenish itself only when money continues to circulate through taxable sales. Payments used for debt reduction, additional savings, imports, or cash kept aside are presented as leakages that reduce the amount returning to the fund. The page then scales the example to $2.5 trillion in monthly payments and activity at the story’s pace. It identifies the exercise as an adaptation of John Mayo-Smith’s 2019 “Universal Basic Income Explained with Venmo,” cites several sources on multipliers and leakage, and notes that the final payment in the shortened story is a voluntary gift to the fund. The page frames these figures as a model for considering the proposal, rather than evidence that the dividend would work in practice.