If a basic income can't legally scale, is it a safety net or a public-relations shield?
Google-funded guaranteed-income pilots are capped by tax law in both length and amount, while Musk and Bezos pitch cash as the fix for the jobs they are automating. Is a small, time-limited check a real step toward a post-labor safety net, or does it mainly buy the tech industry cover to keep cutting?
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In today’s episode of Minds, Bodies, and Terawatts, dated October 13, 2026, the hosts dig into the New York Times’ year-long look at Bay Area guaranteed-income recipients like Mikole Weeks, whose $1,330 a month bought diapers, clean laundry and a day at Six Flags but did not replace a job. The episode contrasts that with Musk’s White House promise of ‘universal high income’ and Bezos’s Fox News pitch, and notes that the six Google-funded pilots are legally built to stay small and to stop. The hosts argue that a check can close the gap in a bad month, but that it is not the same thing as a floor, let alone the abundance being advertised. Listen to the full episode and tell us where you land: is this the start of something, or a substitute for it?
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Envie d'aller plus loin ?
Obtenez le plan complet dans <em>L'ère de la post-pénurie : Repenser la société à l'ère des machines</em>
