Why We Need a Workers' Bill of Rights in the Age of Automation

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 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.

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.

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."

4. Democratic Ownership of Productivity Gains.

Not all wealth produced by AI should flow to Jeff Bezos' 19th yacht.

A Public Innovation Dividend should be created—a national trust fund seeded by a tiny 0.01% tax on Wall Street trades, high-frequency algorithmic speculation, and corporate profits tied to automation gains.

(Genius, right? Wall Street’s robots pay for Main Street’s freedom.)

5. Worker Voice in Technology Adoption.

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

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?

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

Ok. So time to get down to brass tax. 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 ideas:

1. Wall Street Microtransaction Tax

• Impose a 0.01% tax (or even lower) 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.
• (Bonus: it also weakens the power of finance capital over the real economy.)

2. Wealth Tax on Billionaires and Multi-Millionaires

• A progressive wealth tax (e.g., 2% on assets over $50 million, higher tiers for larger fortunes).
• Not just income, but total net assets — real estate, stocks, yachts, art collections.
• This targets the accumulated hoarded wealth sitting idle, and redirects it into real, regenerative uses.
• Even modest wealth taxes (proposed by economists like Saez and Zucman) could generate hundreds of billions a year.

3. Fossil-Fuel Freedom 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.

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.

5. Public Ownership of Key Industries (Social Dividends)

• Establish public ownership stakes in major industries (energy, healthcare, banking, tech platforms).
• 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.
• (Norway’s sovereign wealth fund is a real-world example — they nationalized oil revenues and invest for the public.)

6. Automation Dividend Trust

• Any company that replaces human workers with automation must contribute a portion of the productivity gains into a public automation trust fund.
• These contributions fund UBI and UBS, ensuring that automation benefits everyone, not just corporate owners.
• If machines are doing more of the work, humans should share in the gains.