NEW YORK / RankWire.AI / — Andrew Yang, the former 2020 Democratic presidential candidate and co-founder of the Forward Party, reiterated his call for a nationwide AI tax on Tuesday. He warned that current federal fiscal policies are skewing the labor market. During a CNBC interview, Yang, CEO of Noble Mobile, explained that heavy employer payroll taxes discourage the hiring of human workers. He pointed out that the current tax system effectively subsidizes automation by exempting software deployments from similar labor-related costs.
In the discussion, Yang highlighted that under present tax laws, businesses face substantial payroll taxes and healthcare expenses for human employees. Meanwhile, companies deploying artificial intelligence face no comparable labor taxes, which reduces their operational costs compared to human labor. Noble Mobile’s CEO emphasized that the existing legal framework unintentionally promotes corporate management to accelerate replacing human workers with automated systems across key economic sectors.
We’re Subsidizing a Technology That Will Replace Millions Andrew Yang Declares
Yang suggested a policy shift that would move financial burdens from traditional payroll taxes to automated compute tokens and AI revenue models. Citing recent remarks from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who proposed a 3 percent revenue tax on generative AI systems, Yang argued that taxing interactions with automation is a practical way to address market imbalances. He emphasized that proceeds from such an AI tax should be directly distributed to citizens as universal cash dividends, rather than channeled into legacy retraining programs.
This debate unfolds amid rising economic concerns over workplace automation in the U.S. A joint survey by CNBC and Generation Lab revealed that 45 percent of young Americans aged 18 to 34 believe artificial intelligence will adversely affect their career prospects in the long term. Additionally, macroeconomic analysis by Bridgewater Associates executives estimates that automated platforms could impact around 18 percent of total U.S. jobs within the next five years.
Rapid Industry Changes Displace Customer Service Workers
Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows customer service departments across the country currently employ about 2.9 million workers. This sector is among the first to experience swift automation shifts. Yang warned that government-backed workforce retraining initiatives have historically failed to help displaced industrial and administrative workers find sustainable new careers. He pointed to past retraining programs for coal miners and warehouse employees as evidence that direct financial support provides more stability than federal job placement efforts.
Yang concluded by urging federal policymakers to overhaul tax laws to keep human workers competitive with advancing software agents. Since current tax policies subsidize a technology that threatens to displace millions of jobs, he stressed the importance of establishing neutral, equitable tax regulations to navigate the ongoing digital transformation of the labor market. Lawmakers and policy experts continue reviewing proposed legislative solutions to address the challenges posed by workplace automation in upcoming congressional sessions.