When a famous right-wing tech titan, several liberal senators, and even the president of the United States simultaneously call for massive new work-free government handouts, it’s worth taking note.
It remains to be seen whether the artificial intelligence-induced employment disruptions behind those calls will occur, much less the proposed universal government checks, akin to welfare payments for all. But recent polling indicates that everyday Americans overwhelmingly continue to support expecting able-bodied adults to work or at least search for work as a condition of receiving government welfare benefits. That suggests those who promise to shower Americans with new no-strings-attached government cash face an uphill battle convincing the public that it’s a good idea.
In mid-April, the American Enterprise Institute posed the following question to more than 2,000 U.S. adults: “How much do you favor or oppose requiring adults who are not disabled to work, or be actively seeking work, to be eligible for welfare benefits?” A total of 75% supported such requirements (including 45% who did so strongly), while only 22% opposed them, with the remainder refusing to answer. That lopsided support was despite only about a third of respondents being familiar with work requirement expansions currently underway.
That finding is consistent with other polling and ballot measures. In April 2023, almost 80% of Wisconsin voters approved a ballot measure saying welfare recipients should at least search for work to receive taxpayer-funded benefits. In February 2023, a YouGov poll found that two-thirds of Americans — including 64% of Democrats — supported expecting able-bodied welfare recipients to participate in work or training in exchange for benefits.
That broad support stands in stark contrast to recent proposals from both peripheries of the political spectrum to hand out tens of millions of new work-free government benefit checks in response to AI-related changes.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk in April suggested that “Universal HIGH INCOME via checks issued by the Federal government is the best way to deal with unemployment caused by AI.”
His stress on “high income” was meant to contrast with long-standing calls for less generous but still ruinously expensive universal basic income schemes. Never fear, Musk assures. AI will produce so much wealth and tax revenue that the government will be able to provide everyone with “abundant resources, not just basic needs.” “Everyone can have a penthouse,” even as work and savings become optional, he claims.
Such promises remain as ethereal as fears of AI-induced mass unemployment. But liberal senators are already developing more concrete tax and spending plans.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) announced legislation that would “give the public a 50% ownership stake in the largest AI companies in America.”
According to Sanders, that would “guarantee that the trillions of dollars potentially generated by AI are used to improve the lives of all of us.” The improvements include “direct payments to the American people” and more government-provided healthcare, education, and housing assistance. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has similarly called for “tax AI and invest in people” through “universal healthcare, free education,” and other expanded benefits.
President Donald Trump subsequently echoed calls for a government stake in AI, suggesting tech companies would agree to “giving back” to the public, who “will become very rich” as a result. Unsurprisingly, neither he nor others mentioned work requirements or any other conditions for the proposed new benefits.
Back in the real world, requirements for those claiming current welfare benefits are growing under last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. That legislation significantly expanded the number of able-bodied adults expected to work, train, or perform community service on at least a part-time basis to qualify for Medicaid and food stamp benefits.
The Trump administration recently released guidance for states implementing the Medicaid work requirements, which have already started taking effect. A Department of Health and Human Services report suggests the requirements could significantly increase work and earnings while reducing poverty and benefit dependence. If so, that would match the results of historic reforms applied to formerly work-free welfare checks a generation ago.
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As expanded work requirements are implemented everywhere, they have a built-in advantage — broad support from the American public, who continue to believe recipients should work or prepare for work to qualify for valuable taxpayer benefits. The public seems to know something others promising a brave new world of something for nothing have missed. That is, in a country founded on the dignity of work, most Americans continue to believe that work and striving remain prerequisites for progress and prosperity.
Perhaps someday AI will alter that. But right now, promises of vast new work-free benefits seem somewhere between a believe-it-when-I-see-it vision and just the latest liberal plan to expand an already-bloated welfare state massively.
Matt Weidinger is a senior fellow and Rowe scholar in opportunity and mobility studies at the American Enterprise Institute.