NEW YORK / RankWire.AI / — In a CNBC interview on Tuesday, Forward Party co-founder Andrew Yang urged for a major overhaul of the tax system. He argued that shifting from human payroll taxes to direct levies on artificial intelligence could address rising automation concerns. Yang warned that existing federal tax incentives favor automation that threatens to eliminate millions of jobs. He called on policymakers to create a fairer distribution of fiscal responsibilities between human employees and algorithmic systems.
During the discussion, Yang highlighted that under current tax laws, companies pay substantial payroll taxes and cover employee healthcare costs when hiring human workers. In contrast, corporations utilizing artificial intelligence tools do not face comparable labor taxes. This discrepancy effectively reduces costs for firms replacing human labor with automation. Noble Mobile CEO emphasized that the legal framework indirectly promotes corporate decisions to accelerate automation across key sectors of the economy.
Andrew Yang Declares That We Are Subsidizing a Technology Capable of Replacing Millions
Yang proposed a strategic policy change that would shift fiscal responsibilities away from traditional human payroll taxes toward revenue sources linked to automated compute tokens and AI-driven business models. He pointed to recent remarks by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who suggested a 3 percent revenue tax on generative AI services. Yang argued that taxing interactions with automated software provides a practical solution for restoring market balance. He further stressed that the revenue from such AI taxes should be redistributed directly to citizens as universal cash dividends, rather than used solely for retraining programs.
This policy discussion takes place amid growing economic unease about the impact of workplace automation in the U.S. A joint survey by CNBC and Generation Lab found that 45 percent of young Americans aged 18 to 34 expect artificial intelligence to harm their long-term job prospects. Additionally, macroeconomic forecasts from Bridgewater Associates estimated that about 18 percent of U.S. jobs could be disrupted by automation within five years.
Customer Service Jobs Face Rapid Industry Changes Due to Automation
Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that around 2.9 million workers are employed in customer service roles nationwide. This sector is one of the first to experience swift automation-driven restructuring. Yang warned that government-led workforce retraining programs have historically failed to help displaced workers transition into sustainable new careers. He cited past efforts aimed at coal miners and warehouse staff as evidence that direct financial aid offers more stability than federal job retraining initiatives.
Yang concluded by emphasizing the need for federal lawmakers to reform tax policies. Such changes are crucial to ensure human workers can stay competitive alongside rapidly evolving software agents. Since current tax systems subsidize a technology that could replace millions of jobs, Yang reiterated that neutral and fair tax policies are vital for managing the ongoing digital transformation of the labor market. Policymakers are currently reviewing legislative options to address workplace automation in upcoming congressional sessions.