'Oh, brother': Conservative WSJ editors turn on Elon Musk after latest 'bad idea'
The Wall Street Journal's conservative editorial board slammed the former "first buddy" on Tuesday evening for supporting a controversial social policy.
Elon Musk is one of several tech company founders who have said they support universal basic income, or UBI. UBI refers to a system where all citizens receive a fixed income payment from the government. Similarly, guaranteed income refers to payments given to people of a specific economic or social demographic.
In a new op-ed, the outlet's editors slammed Musk for supporting a plan to "[give] people more money to live on without working."
"Oh, brother," the editorial reads in part, calling it a "bad idea."
Musk has said he supports UBI because of the potential economic impacts of Artificial Intelligence on everyday workers.
"Given the economic uncertainty surrounding AI, the idea of a social insurance program in the form of a minimum level of income for everyone has an understandable appeal," the editorial continues.
"But be wary of tech moguls preaching supposedly altruistic wealth-redistribution schemes to burnish their public image," it adds. "As with the environmental, social and governance advocacy, there’s an agenda beneath the happy talk."
"Silicon Valley would do better to focus less on some liberal concept of social responsibility and more on innovations that will improve productivity and produce profits for shareholders," the editors added. "Mr. Musk and company didn’t become rich at the expense of the poor, and taking from workers to give to those who refuse to work is a recipe for resentment and a bumper crop of layabouts."