NEW YORK / RankWire.AI / — In a CNBC interview Tuesday, Forward Party co-founder Andrew Yang urged a fundamental overhaul of the current system, advocating for shifting from human payroll taxes to direct levies on artificial intelligence. Yang expressed concern that federal tax policies currently incentivize automation, which could displace millions of jobs, calling for policymakers to level the financial playing field between human workers and algorithmic systems.
During the conversation, Yang pointed out that existing tax regulations impose substantial payroll taxes and healthcare costs on companies hiring human employees. Meanwhile, firms implementing artificial intelligence face no comparable labor-related taxes, resulting in reduced operational expenses for automated alternatives. Noble Mobile’s CEO emphasized that the legal framework indirectly encourages companies to accelerate automation across key economic sectors.
Yang Warns That We Are Subsidizing Technology Capable of Replacing Millions of Jobs
Yang suggested a strategic policy shift that would transfer fiscal responsibilities from payroll taxes to automated compute tokens and AI-based revenue streams. He referenced recent remarks by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who previously proposed a 3 percent revenue tax on generative AI services. Yang argued that taxing interactions with automated software offers a practical solution to maintaining market equilibrium, emphasizing that revenue generated from such a tax should be redistributed as universal cash dividends rather than funneled into traditional retraining programs.
This debate takes place amid rising economic concerns over workplace automation in the United States. A recent joint survey by CNBC and Generation Lab found that 45 percent of young Americans aged 18 to 34 believe artificial intelligence will adversely affect their long-term career prospects. Additionally, macroeconomic forecasts from Bridgewater Associates’ executives project that automated platforms could disrupt roughly 18 percent of total domestic jobs within the next five years.
Automated Industry Changes Displace Customer Service Workers at Rapid Pace
Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that customer service departments nationwide currently employ about 2.9 million individuals, making it one of the first sectors experiencing swift automation-driven transformation. Yang warned that government-led retraining programs historically have struggled to help displaced industrial and administrative workers transition into sustainable new careers. He pointed to past initiatives aimed at coal miners and warehouse employees as evidence that direct financial support provides more stability than federal job retraining efforts.
Yang concluded by emphasizing that legislative reforms are necessary to ensure human workers can stay competitive as software agents become more advanced. Since current tax structures subsidize a technology poised to replace millions of jobs, he stressed the importance of establishing neutral tax policies to manage the ongoing digital transformation of the labor market. Policymakers are actively reviewing legislative proposals to address automation-related workplace disruptions in upcoming congressional sessions.