Elon Musk Predicts ‘Universal High Income’ Will Pay For Everything — How Much Would You Get?
Written by
Chris Adam
Edited by
Rebekah Evans
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Imagine having a world where you no longer need to work to afford to live. While it may sound like a far-off dream, at least one tech expert predicts that could happen in the next two decades. Find out below what a “universal high income” is and how much you’d receive.
Also here is what your pay would be if you had 1% of Musk’s wealth.
What Is ‘Universal High Income’?
Elon Musk recently said on an episode of the “People by WTF” podcast that in less than 20 years, the advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics will make working optional.
Musk predicted there will be a “universal high income (UHI)” and humans won’t need to work and will have all they need. In other words, you would have abundant resources, not just basic needs.
Perhaps one frustrating part of Musk’s vision is that he didn’t provide much in the way of exact dollar amounts. Rather, he talked about UHI covering everything such as food, housing and medical care. According to him, goods would become very cheap and money would be essentially irrelevant.
While the term UHI may be new to you, perhaps the idea of “universal basic income” (UBI) is more familiar. The latter has focused on poverty alleviation.
How Much Money Could You See?
All of this discussion may be nice, but it doesn’t really give you an idea of how much you might get under UHI. After all, even the term “high income” means lots of different things to different people.
If you ask ChatGPT for an amount that equates to UHI, you’ll receive a variety of answers. One common amount is $175,700 a year. This number has been talked about quite a bit in discussions online and elsewhere regarding UHI. It also comes from an article by the Tax Project Institute.
ChatGPT shared other amounts as well. They included a round figure of $3,000 a month and some lower figures such $10,000 to $13,000 a year. The wide range of amounts opens up an interesting discussion point for financial advisors and their clients — the different ways to budget to ensure a successful future for their money.
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