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In a 2017 Reddit Ask Me Anything, Bill Gates argued that universal basic income (UBI) might become affordable in the future, but that the United States was not then wealthy enough to let people live without working. He pointed instead to unmet needs in elder care, support for children with special needs and education, and cited the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) as a near-term way to increase demand for labor. His answer was a qualified view about timing and priorities, not a blanket rejection of income support.
What did Bill Gates say about universal basic income?
Gates answered a direct UBI question in a 2017 Reddit AMA. Identified there as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, he wrote:
“Over time countries will be rich enough to do this. However we still have a lot of work that should be done – helping older people, helping kids with special needs, having more adults helping in education. Even the US isn’t rich enough to allow people not to work. Some day we will be but until then things like the Earned Income Tax Credit will help increase the demand for labor.”
Read Gates’s answer in the Reddit AMA.
How to understand his position
Gates separated the possibility of UBI in the long run from what he thought should take priority at the time. He named helping older people, supporting children with special needs and putting more adults into education as work that remained to be done. He did not argue that income support should never exist; his answer placed a broad, unconditional payment behind those priorities and behind a stronger labor market.
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His reference to the EITC matters because it describes a different policy approach from UBI. The credit is tied to earnings, whereas UBI refers to a regular payment not conditioned on employment. Gates presented the EITC as a way to increase labor demand in the meantime, rather than as an equivalent version of UBI.
What the statement does—and does not—establish
The AMA is evidence of what Gates said in 2017; it is not fiscal modeling demonstrating that the United States could or could not afford a UBI, nor proof that his forecast about future affordability has come true. The statement also does not establish whether he has since changed or refined his view.
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A Futurism article updated March 2, 2017, framed the position as the world not being ready “now” but getting there “soon.” That future-facing framing belongs to the period when it was written, not to current evidence about UBI’s feasibility. Read the contemporaneous Futurism coverage.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why the answer is still useful to personal-finance readers
Gates’s response highlights questions that any UBI proposal raises: whether a payment is universal or targeted, how it would be funded over time, whether it replaces or supplements earnings, and how its cost compares with spending on care and education. His answer gives his priorities and his view of the EITC, but it does not settle those wider policy questions.
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