There's a basic question hanging over the future of work that almost no one in power is asking out loud:

Who will own the gains of automation and AI?

Will it be the hedge funds, billionaires, and multinational corporations?

Or will it be all of us—the people who built this economy and keep it running every day?

Because the answer will decide whether the next 50 years are a golden age of shared prosperity… or a dystopia of mass unemployment, deeper inequality, and social collapse.

It's not hard to see where things are heading under the current rules. Corporations are already using AI and automation to eliminate jobs, boost productivity, and pad executive bonuses—while regular workers are expected to "retrain" endlessly, take pay cuts, or simply get left behind.

If we don't intervene, the benefits of automation will be hoarded at the top, just like the benefits of globalization were.

They'll tell us "progress" demands sacrifices. But it won't be the CEOs sacrificing.

It'll be us.

That's why we need a Workers' Bill of Rights for the Age of Automation—and we need it urgently.

Here's what it should guarantee:

1. A 4-Day Workweek OR a 32-Hour Workweek with No Loss in Pay

Automation should mean working less for the same or better pay, not working harder for less. Technology should liberate human beings, not grind us down further.

This isn't radical fantasy—it's already happening. Iceland conducted the world's largest trial of a shorter workweek from 2015-2019, involving 2,500 workers (over 1% of the country's working population). The results? Productivity remained the same or improved, while worker wellbeing and work-life balance dramatically increased.

Belgium recently gave workers the right to request a 4-day workweek. Spain is piloting a national 4-day week program. Companies from Microsoft Japan to Perpetual Guardian in New Zealand have proven this works in practice.

2. A Path to a 3-Day Workweek Within a Generation

If machines can do more, we should work less and live more.

Full stop.

This doesn't mean we'll stop working. It just means we'll be more free to contribute to the non-profit economy, slow down, and not be forced to make worthless widgets that are trashing the planet just to make next week's rent.

Remember: the weekend itself was once considered impossibly radical. The 40-hour workweek was won through decades of labor organizing. When Henry Ford implemented it in 1926, he was called a dangerous socialist. Now it's the baseline we're fighting to preserve.

The historical trend is clear: as productivity increases, working hours should decrease. That's what happened from the 1800s through the 1960s. But then something broke. Productivity kept rising, but our hours didn't fall—and for many, they increased. The gains went somewhere else.

It's time to restore that historical relationship.

3. Universal Basic Income and Universal Basic Services

A floor nobody can fall beneath, and essential services—healthcare, education, housing, public transit—guaranteed as rights, not privileges.

A dignified life must not depend on whether a corporate algorithm still deems you "economically useful."

Universal Basic Services are already proven worldwide. The UK's NHS has provided universal healthcare since 1948. Finland ended homelessness by treating housing as a right, not a commodity—their Housing First program achieved a 90% success rate. Germany offers tuition-free university education to all citizens and international students. These aren't utopian dreams; they're working policies in functioning economies.

As for UBI, Alaska has distributed an annual dividend from oil revenues to every resident since 1982—proving that universal payments work without destroying the work ethic (employment actually increased). Kenya, Stockton California, and dozens of other pilot programs have demonstrated that direct cash payments reduce poverty, improve health outcomes, and enable people to invest in education and entrepreneurship.

4. Publicly Funded, Open-Source AI as a Public Utility

AI should be treated like libraries, roads, and the electrical grid—essential infrastructure that belongs to everyone.

We need massive public investment in open-source AI development that any worker, small business, or community can access freely. Just as public libraries democratized knowledge, public AI can democratize technological capability.

This means:

• Federal funding for open-source AI development (like we funded the internet)
• Free public access to AI tools through digital libraries
• Community tech centers where anyone can learn and use AI
• No patents or paywalls blocking access to foundational AI technology

When corporations develop AI using publicly funded research, public data, and public infrastructure, the technology itself should be public. Not sold back to us at monopoly prices.

The precedent is crystal clear: the internet itself was publicly funded research that became the foundation of our digital economy. GPS was developed by the U.S. military and made freely available, spawning countless innovations. The Human Genome Project was publicly funded and made open-source, accelerating medical breakthroughs.

Why should AI be any different? The foundational research behind modern AI came from universities and publicly funded labs. The data that trains AI comes from us—our writing, our images, our interactions. The infrastructure it runs on uses publicly subsidized electricity grids and telecommunications networks.

If we built it together, it should belong to all of us.

5. Worker Voice in Technology Adoption

No company should be allowed to automate away jobs without negotiation and consent from workers. Period.

This principle is already established in German labor law through "co-determination" (Mitbestimmung), where workers have seats on corporate boards and significant say in major business decisions, including technology adoption. Companies with more than 2,000 employees must have worker representatives make up half of their supervisory boards.

The results? Germany maintains one of the strongest manufacturing sectors in the world precisely because workers have input into how automation is implemented. Rather than replacing workers entirely, German companies often use automation to augment human capabilities—because workers are at the table when those decisions are made.

Sweden's union laws similarly require companies to negotiate with workers before implementing major changes. These aren't fringe policies—they're proven frameworks from advanced economies.

6. Full Employment Guarantee

If the private sector can't provide enough jobs because technology has made labor "obsolete," the public sector must step in—with dignified work focused on rebuilding communities, restoring ecosystems, caring for people, and healing what's broken.

We can build an economy that finally values the things that don't have a price tag. Imagine that?

The U.S. already proved this works during the New Deal. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) employed 8.5 million people at its peak, building 650,000 miles of roads, 125,000 public buildings, 75,000 bridges, and creating lasting art and infrastructure we still use today.

More recently, India's MGNREGA program has guaranteed 100 days of employment per year to rural households since 2005, lifting millions out of poverty while building crucial infrastructure. Argentina's Plan Jefes y Jefas provided work guarantees during their economic crisis, successfully reducing poverty and unemployment.

A federal job guarantee could focus on:

• Ecological restoration and climate adaptation
• Community care work (childcare, eldercare, mental health support)
• Arts, culture, and public education
• Infrastructure repair and renewable energy installation
• Local food systems and regenerative agriculture

These are jobs that desperately need doing—work that enriches communities rather than enriches shareholders.

Here's the deeper truth:

Automation could be humanity's ticket to freedom.

Less drudgery. More creativity, more time for family, art, nature, civic life.

A civilization where nobody is forced to work soul-crushing jobs just to survive.

But only if we fight for it.

Only if we refuse to accept an economy where the spoils of technological advancement are privatized while the costs are socialized onto the rest of us.

Technology is not destiny.

Policy is not physics.

The future is still ours to write—if we organize, if we demand better, if we remind those in power that without our labor, nothing moves, nothing runs, nothing is built.

We are not just passengers in this machine.

We are the engine.

It's time we start acting like it.

Part 2: Funding Our Freedom

A UBI, UBS, and Full Employment Guarantee require predictable income streams. How are we going to pay for this bold vision of freedom?

Here are 6 proven, practical funding mechanisms:

1. Wall Street Microtransaction Tax

Impose a 0.01% tax on every stock, bond, and derivatives trade, especially targeting high-frequency trading.

This captures billions (or even trillions) of dollars of financial speculation, which currently generates no real value for society.

It slows down algorithmic trading volatility while funding the social floor everyone needs.

Real-world proof: Sweden had a financial transaction tax in the 1980s. France implemented one in 2012 and currently raises about €1 billion annually. The UK has taxed stock transactions since 1694 (yes, over 300 years) through stamp duty, raising billions yearly without harming their financial sector.

Economists estimate a 0.01% tax in the U.S. could generate $220-$600 billion per decade, depending on trading volumes.

(Bonus: it also weakens the power of finance capital over the real economy.)

2. Progressive Income Tax on High Earners

Instead of complex wealth taxes that face enforcement challenges, we can use proven tax policy:

Progressive income tax rates:

• 70% marginal rate on income over $1 million/year
• 80% on income over $10 million/year
• 90% on income over $50 million/year

This isn't radical—it's historical restoration. The U.S. had a top marginal tax rate of 91% from 1951-1963 under Republican President Eisenhower. During this period, we built the Interstate Highway System, funded the space program, and experienced broad-based prosperity. The rate remained above 70% until 1981.

These high rates don't kill economic growth—they accompanied America's greatest period of middle-class expansion. They fund public investment while preventing the dangerous accumulation of dynastic wealth that corrupts democracy.

Robust corporate taxation:

• Restore the corporate tax rate to 35% (from the current gutted 21%)
• Close tax haven loopholes that allow companies like Apple and Amazon to pay near-zero federal taxes
• Tax corporations based on where they do business, not where they incorporate
• End the preferential treatment of capital gains (where investment income is taxed lower than wages)

Between 1945-1970, U.S. corporate taxes averaged 4-5% of GDP. Today they're barely 1% of GDP despite record corporate profits. Simply returning to historical norms would generate hundreds of billions annually.

3. Carbon Fee and Dividend System

Charge a carbon fee at the point of fossil fuel extraction (oil wells, coal mines) or importation.

100% of the revenue goes directly back to people as UBI or funds universal services.

This makes polluters pay for climate damages, encourages transition to clean energy, and redistributes the money directly to citizens.

It internalizes the hidden ecological costs that corporations currently dump onto the public for free.

Real-world models: British Columbia, Canada implemented a carbon tax in 2008 and returned the revenue through tax cuts and credits. Switzerland has had a carbon tax since 2008, with two-thirds of revenue redistributed to residents and businesses. Both programs reduced emissions while maintaining economic growth.

The IMF estimates that a global carbon price of $75 per ton could raise revenue equivalent to 2% of global GDP—approximately $2 trillion annually—while driving the emissions reductions necessary to avoid climate catastrophe.

4. End Corporate Welfare and Redirect Subsidies

The U.S. alone gives over $600 billion a year in direct and indirect subsidies to fossil fuels, industrial agriculture, predatory banks, and other destructive industries.

End these subsidies and redirect the funds toward UBI and UBS.

In essence: stop paying corporations to destroy the planet, and start investing in human wellbeing instead.

The numbers are staggering:

• $20+ billion annually in direct fossil fuel subsidies
• $37 billion in farm subsidies that primarily benefit large agribusiness corporations
• Hundreds of billions in tax breaks for corporations that shift profits offshore
• $80+ billion per year in implicit subsidies to the fossil fuel industry through pollution externalities

Every dollar currently subsidizing ExxonMobil or Archer Daniels Midland could instead fund healthcare, education, or direct payments to citizens.

5. Public Ownership and Social Dividends

Establish public ownership stakes in major industries (energy, healthcare, banking, tech platforms) and sectors built with taxpayer money.

Citizens collectively own shares of these enterprises, and profits are distributed as dividends to fund UBI + UBS.

This moves us away from 100% private profit hoarding and toward shared prosperity from sectors critical to life.

Proven models that work:

Norway's Government Pension Fund Global (the "Oil Fund") is the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, worth over $1.4 trillion. Norway nationalized oil revenues and invested them for the public good. Every Norwegian citizen is effectively a millionaire through their share of collective wealth. The fund owns 1.5% of all listed stocks globally and returns billions in dividends annually.

Alaska's Permanent Fund has paid annual dividends to every Alaskan resident since 1982, ranging from $1,000-$2,000 per person. It's funded by oil revenues and invested in diverse assets. Alaskans receive these payments simply for being residents—a working model of universal basic income.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), created in 1933, is a federally owned corporation providing electricity to 10 million people across seven states. It proves public ownership can deliver essential services efficiently while keeping costs lower than private utilities.

Here's how we expand this model:

Any company that receives public subsidies, bailouts, or uses public research must issue public equity shares.

Think about it: We bailed out the banks in 2008 to the tune of $700 billion. Instead of just loans, we should have taken ownership stakes. We funded the research behind pharmaceutical breakthroughs—why do private companies get exclusive patents? We built the internet—why do tech monopolies extract all the value?

When taxpayers take the risk, taxpayers should share the reward.

6. Automation Dividend Trust

Any company that eliminates more than 10% of its workforce in a single year through automation must contribute to the Automation Dividend Trust.

The contribution equals:

• 25% of the saved labor costs for 5 years, OR
• Stock equity equivalent to 10% of the automation investment

This is easy to track (payroll records), easy to calculate (known labor costs), and creates immediate accountability when mass layoffs happen.

These contributions fund UBI and UBS, ensuring that automation benefits everyone, not just corporate owners.

Why this works:

Unlike trying to track vague "productivity gains," this targets a specific, measurable event: workforce reduction. Companies already track payroll meticulously for tax purposes. When a company fires 1,000 workers and replaces them with software, we know exactly how much they're saving in labor costs.

The formula is simple:

• Previous annual payroll costs for eliminated positions: $50 million
• 25% of that for 5 years: $62.5 million total contribution

This isn't punitive—it's a recognition that automation is built on public infrastructure (roads, internet, education system, legal framework) and that mass unemployment creates public costs (social services, crime, instability). If companies benefit from publicly-funded infrastructure while creating public costs through job elimination, they should contribute to the solution.

The precedent exists: Germany requires companies to negotiate severance packages when eliminating positions. France mandates that companies creating mass layoffs must create a "revitalization plan" and fund retraining. We're simply extending that principle—when you automate away jobs, you contribute to the Automation Dividend Trust that supports displaced workers and funds the transition to a post-scarcity economy.

If machines are doing more of the work, humans should share in the gains.

The Bottom Line

Every single one of these funding mechanisms is proven, practical, and based on real-world examples from functioning economies. We're not asking for untested experiments—we're asking to implement what already works elsewhere.

The money exists. The models exist. The only thing missing is the political will.

And that's where we come in.

This isn't just policy—it's a choice about what kind of civilization we want to build. One where technology concentrates wealth and power in fewer and fewer hands, or one where technological progress actually means progress for everyone.

The automation revolution is coming whether we're ready or not.

The question is: will we shape it, or will it shape us?

Will we allow a future where billions are rendered "economically obsolete" while a tiny elite live like gods?

Or will we build a future where everyone shares in humanity's accumulated knowledge, wealth, and capability?

The choice is ours.

But only if we fight for it.

Only if we organize, demand better, and refuse to accept a world where the machines make billions while we fight over scraps.

We built this civilization. We maintain it. We deserve to thrive in it.

It's time to claim what's ours.