🔍 Read the full analysis: Will Automation Enrich Us All? A Look At Basic Income Experiments on ThorstenMeyerAI.com
Get hardware and tech essentials delivered free with Prime
- Fast, free delivery on millions of items
- Prime Video, Amazon Music and more included
- Member-only deals all year
TL;DR
At Oracle AI World on Oct. 27, Larry Ellison said taxing value added by robots could help fund what he called “universal high income,” while acknowledging the idea could take more than a decade. South Korea is already testing a narrower policy: eligible residents in 17 rural counties receive 150,000 won a month in local vouchers through 2027. Research from other cash-transfer trials suggests effects on work vary, and neither the long-term results nor a funding model for broad payments is settled.
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison said on Oct. 27 that taxes on value created by robots could help pay for what he called “universal high income”, a proposal he said would take more than a decade to emerge. The idea is a forecast, not an announced Oracle policy; a more limited cash-payment test is already underway in South Korea, where eligible residents in 17 rural counties receive 150,000 won a month in local vouchers.
Ellison made the remarks during a closing keynote at Oracle AI World in Las Vegas, in a question-and-answer session with Seema Verma, who leads Oracle Health and Life Sciences. According to accounts published by TechRadar, Diginomica and Business Standard, he argued that predictions of AI replacing everyone are “kind of nonsensical,” while conceding that some jobs, including taxi and ride-share driving, could be replaced. He pointed to autopilots as an example of automation coexisting with human pilots.
His proposed funding mechanism was to shift taxes away from human labor and toward economic value generated by automation. “We need to change from taxing human labor to taxing value added,” he said, according to TechRadar. Ellison argued that robot-built goods could become cheaper if labor costs fell, and referred to a negative income tax as a precedent. He did not present a detailed policy design or cost estimate. Diginomica reported that the robot-tax idea is not an Oracle strategy and disclosed that Oracle is a partner of the publication.
South Korea’s agriculture ministry began its rural basic income pilot in February 2026. Under the program, eligible residents of 17 counties receive 150,000 won—about $112, according to Yonhap’s conversion—each month in local gift vouchers. Eligibility is based on residence, not income or employment: applicants must be Korean citizens registered and living in a pilot county for at least 30 days before applying. The program is scheduled to continue through 2027.
Infographic 01 · Two ideas of a basic income
A promise for the future, a test running now
What Oracle’s co-founder proposed on stage, and how South Korea’s rural basic income actually works and who funds it.
The promise
Larry Ellison, Oracle AI World, Las Vegas, 27 Oct 2026 (as reported)
- Robots build a house: if labor was 80% of the cost, the house gets 80% cheaper
- Change from taxing human labor to taxing value added
- Tax what robots add, fund a “universal high income”
- AI replacing everyone is “kind of nonsensical”
- No amounts, no costing, “more than a decade”
“We need to change from taxing human labor to taxing value added.”Larry Ellison, as quoted by TechRadar, Diginomica and Business Standard
The test
South Korea’s rural basic income pilot, 2026–2027
- Every citizen registered and living in a pilot county for 30+ days
- No means test, no job requirement; newcomers wait 90 days
- Paid as a local gift voucher (card or phone), not cash
- Expires after 3 months (towns) or 6 months (townships)
- Max ₩50,000 at gas stations, convenience stores, co-op supermarkets
- 10 counties from February, 7 more from 28 August; about 18 more planned for 2027
Who pays in 2026
Share of the ₩150,000 base payment
Proposed for 2027
Ministry’s budget proposal; parliament decides
Some counties add their own money: Gurye, Boseong and Cheongsong pay ₩200,000, Boeun ₩160,000 (ministry, 25 Aug). The ministry puts the total cost of the 2026–27 pilot at about ₩3.09 trillion.
Sources: TechRadar, 30 Oct · Diginomica, 27 Oct · Business Standard, 28 Oct · Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: MAFRA, 10 Feb, 11 Jun, 25 Aug, 8 Oct 2026.
Powered by Thorsten Meyer AI
Who Pays When Machines Produce More
The proposals address a distribution question that grows more pressing if automation shifts income from wages toward profits: who receives the gains, and what tax base can pay for public support? Ellison’s remarks put the issue in terms of taxing value created by machines rather than relying as heavily on work-related income. But they do not establish that a robot tax could fund a large, lasting payment, or specify how such a tax would work.
Existing trials offer evidence about cash payments, but not a direct test of Ellison’s idea. The source material reports that the US OpenResearch study found recipients given $1,000 a month earned about $1,900 less annually and worked one to two fewer hours a week. Finland’s trial had little effect on employment, while Kenya’s participants shifted some activity from wage work to their own businesses. These results concern different programs and populations; they do not settle how a nationwide payment funded by taxes on automation would affect work or living standards.
The cost is a separate constraint. The source estimates that paying every US adult $1,000 per month would cost about $3.1 trillion annually, compared with $5.40 trillion in federal receipts in fiscal 2026. Those figures are the source author’s calculation, not an official cost estimate. An International Labour Organization research brief cited by the source warns that extra purchasing power could raise prices in sectors where supply does not expand, including housing and care. Cash transfers could help recipients, but their real value would depend partly on funding and prices.
Products Worth Considering
Logitech MX Keys S Wireless Keyboard, Graphite
Trezor Safe 7 Crypto Hardware Wallet
Ledger Flex Crypto Wallet
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
From Tax Proposals to Rural Vouchers
Ellison’s suggestion draws on ideas that predate the current AI boom. TechRadar noted that other technology figures, including Elon Musk, have discussed basic income, and Sam Altman’s 2021 essay “Moore’s Law for Everything” argued for taxing capital and land rather than labor. Ellison also invoked economist Milton Friedman’s negative income tax, under which payments to people below an income threshold decline as their earnings rise. That is distinct from an unconditional payment to everyone.
Nor is value-added taxation itself new. A value-added tax is collected as goods and services gain value at different stages of production and sale. The OECD says the United States is the only OECD country whose main consumption tax is a retail sales tax rather than a VAT; US sales taxes are set by state and local governments. Ellison’s proposal is about using a tax base on a scale that could support broad income payments, not simply introducing a familiar tax mechanism.
South Korea’s pilot is more limited in reach and form. It targets counties identified by the government as losing population and distributes support through local gift vouchers rather than unrestricted cash. In 2026, the national government funds 40% of the program, the province 30% and the county 30%. The agriculture ministry has proposed a 50/25/25 split for 2027 and expansion to about 18 more counties, subject to parliament’s budget decision. The pilot tests a rural support program, not a tax on robots.
“We need to change from taxing human labor to taxing value added.”
— Larry Ellison, Oracle co-founder, as quoted by TechRadar
The Funding Model Is Unsettled
No detailed proposal has been supplied for how a tax on robot-generated value would be defined, collected or distributed, or what rate and tax base would be needed to fund payments. Ellison’s remarks were made in a keynote discussion, and the cited reporting says the idea is not Oracle strategy. The available information does not show that the company or a government has adopted it.
South Korea’s 2027 funding split and proposed expansion remain subject to parliament’s budget vote. The supplied material does not establish the pilot’s final effects on household finances, employment, local businesses or population trends. Results from the US, Finland and Kenya cannot by themselves predict what a different program would do in South Korea or at national scale.
There is also uncertainty about purchasing power. If cash support increases demand in sectors unable to expand supply quickly, prices may rise; the scale of that effect would depend on policy design and local conditions. The cited research warning is a risk, not evidence that the Korean pilot has caused such price increases.
South Korea’s 2027 Budget Decision
The next concrete decision identified in the source is South Korea’s parliament vote on the 2027 budget. That will determine whether the proposed shift to a 50% national, 25% provincial and 25% county funding split proceeds, and whether the pilot expands to roughly 18 additional counties. The existing payments are scheduled to continue through 2027.
More evidence will depend on the program’s results and on further reporting about its costs and effects. Ellison’s comments, by contrast, set no policy timetable beyond his estimate that the change would take more than a decade. Any future proposal would need details on tax design, payment eligibility, revenue, and how to account for price effects. Until then, the robot-tax idea remains a public argument about who should benefit from automation, rather than an enacted funding plan.
Key Questions
What did Larry Ellison propose?
Ellison said value created by robots could be taxed to help fund what he called “universal high income.” He did not present a detailed policy or cost estimate and said the idea could take more than a decade.
Who receives payments in South Korea’s pilot?
Eligible Korean citizens who meet the residence requirements in one of 17 participating rural counties receive 150,000 won a month in local gift vouchers. The program does not use an income test or require recipients to have a job.
Does the South Korean program test a robot tax?
No. The rural pilot provides vouchers to residents in counties losing population. Its 2026 funding is shared by the national government, province and county; it does not test a tax on automation.
Do basic income trials show that recipients stop working?
The results described in the source vary. The US OpenResearch study found lower earnings and a small reduction in work hours among recipients; Finland saw little employment change, while participants in Kenya shifted some work toward their own businesses. These findings do not establish how a universal payment funded by automation taxes would affect employment.
What happens to South Korea’s pilot in 2027?
The program is scheduled to run through 2027. A proposed funding split and expansion to about 18 more counties depend on parliament’s budget decision.
Source: ThorstenMeyerAI.com
