NEW YORK / RankWire.AI / — On Tuesday, Andrew Yang, the former 2020 Democratic presidential candidate and co-founder of the Forward Party, reiterated his advocacy for implementing a national AI tax, warning that current fiscal policies are skewing the labor market by favoring automation. During a segment on CNBC, the CEO of Noble Mobile explained that substantial payroll taxes on employers discourage hiring human workers, emphasizing that the existing tax code effectively favors corporate automation by exempting the costs associated with software deployment from comparable labor taxes.
In the course of the interview, Yang highlighted that, under current tax regulations, companies incur significant payroll taxes and healthcare expenses when employing human staff. Meanwhile, corporations that leverage artificial intelligence technologies do not face similar labor-related taxes, which results in lowered operational costs for automated workforce solutions. The Noble Mobile leader pointed out that this legal environment unintentionally encourages businesses to speed up replacing human labor with automation across key sectors of the economy.
Yang Warns That Public Funds Are Supporting Technology Capable of Displacing Millions
He proposed a strategic policy shift that would redirect financial burdens away from traditional payroll taxes toward revenue streams generated by automated computing tokens and AI-based business models. Citing recent remarks from Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, who suggested a 3 percent revenue tax on generative AI implementations, Yang argued that applying taxes to AI operations is a practical measure for restoring market balance. He added that income derived from such an AI tax should be allocated directly to citizens through universal cash dividends, rather than channeled into retraining programs for displaced workers.
This policy debate unfolds amid rising economic concerns over automation’s threat to employment across the U.S. A recent joint survey by CNBC and Generation Lab found that 45 percent of young Americans aged 18 to 34 believe artificial intelligence will harm their long-term career prospects. Additionally, macroeconomic forecasts from Bridgewater Associates’ executives estimate that automation could displace roughly 18 percent of the nation’s jobs within the next five years.
Fast Industry Changes Displace Customer Service Workers
Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals that approximately 2.9 million workers are employed in customer service departments nationwide, marking this sector as one of the first to experience significant automation-driven restructuring. Yang warned that past government-led workforce retraining efforts have often failed to transition displaced workers from industrial and administrative roles into stable new careers. He cited historical retraining initiatives targeted at coal miners and warehouse employees as evidence that direct financial support provides greater stability than federal employment programs.
Yang asserted that federal legislation must be amended to create a more equitable tax system that allows human workers to remain competitive alongside rapidly evolving AI technologies. Since current tax frameworks subsidize the replacement of millions of jobs by software agents, he stressed that establishing neutral and forward-looking tax policies is critical for managing the ongoing digital transformation of the national workforce. Policy experts are actively reviewing legislative proposals to address the challenges posed by automation in upcoming congressional sessions.