Oct 13, 2026 · 5 min · 8 segments
The New York Times reported on October 12 that it followed Bay Area guaranteed-income recipients for more than a year, as Musk, Altman and Amodei promote basic income as the fix for AI-driven job…
Who's paying for these programs? This isn't the government.
Six programs, paid for by one company's gift.
That's a rounding error next to the layoffs it's supposed to answer.
And they can't grow.
The Times notes state and federal tax law caps how long a program can run and how much it can pay.
The experiment is legally built to stay small and to stop.
Meanwhile, the men selling the idea talk much bigger.
Two weeks ago, he stood beside the president at the White House and said by far the most likely outcome is an age of abundance, where we don't have just universal basic income, we have universal high income.
And what's the Bezos version?
Fortune put those side by side.
The corporate role's gone since last fall, against the $200 billion Amazon is spending this year, mostly on data centers.
The three-day week is the forecast.
The layoffs are the weather.
Who's paying for these programs? This isn't the government.
Six programs, paid for by one company's gift.
That's a rounding error next to the layoffs it's supposed to answer.
And they can't grow.
The Times notes state and federal tax law caps how long a program can run and how much it can pay.
The experiment is legally built to stay small and to stop.
Meanwhile, the men selling the idea talk much bigger.
Two weeks ago, he stood beside the president at the White House and said by far the most likely outcome is an age of abundance, where we don't have just universal basic income, we have universal high income.
And what's the Bezos version?
Fortune put those side by side.
The corporate role's gone since last fall, against the $200 billion Amazon is spending this year, mostly on data centers.
The three-day week is the forecast.
The layoffs are the weather.
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