LC Blog

By B E Price

5/29/2026

We are observing the rise of the Libercareans! And no, I don’t mean librarians or libertarians. I mean Libercareans — those people concerned with promoting free markets while also ensuring all Americans are provided with a stake in them and a basic level of support.

This shift is happening at a pivotal moment in American history.

For decades, America’s economic debate has often been framed as a rigid binary: capitalism versus compassion, markets versus fairness, growth versus equity. But a new coalition of entrepreneurs, investors, technologists, and business leaders appears to be challenging that outdated divide. Increasingly, some of the most pro-market voices in America are also advocating for policies designed to spread ownership, expand opportunity, and soften the disruptions caused by technological change. The idea is simple but profound: capitalism survives and thrives when ordinary people believe they have a meaningful stake in it. Rather than abandoning markets, Libercareans want to broaden participation in them, often by utilizing MPERI’s (Market Promoting – Equity Reinforcing Initiatives).

One of the clearest examples is the movement behind “Invest America,” championed by investor Brad Gerstner. The initiative is built around a deceptively powerful concept: give every American child an investment account seeded with capital and tied to long-term market growth. According to Invest America, the goal is to reduce income and opportunity gaps by helping families participate in the financial system and build wealth through ownership.

Gerstner has framed the initiative not as an attack on capitalism, but as a reinforcement of it. In support of the Invest America Act, he argued that “when everyone realizes they can be an owner, it unites our country around free-market principles.”

That sentence captures a core Libercarean insight: ownership changes psychology. People who own assets think differently about growth, innovation, stability, and the future. They become participants in capitalism rather than spectators resentful of it. The coalition supporting Invest America is notable because it includes some of the biggest names in modern business and technology. Michael Dell, Dara Khosrowshahi, and Jensen Huang have all voiced support for the effort.

Dell described the concept as putting “every child in the front row of our economy.” That is not socialist rhetoric. It is market-expansion rhetoric. The philosophy is not about tearing down successful companies or redistributing wealth through punitive means. It is about ensuring more Americans benefit from the extraordinary productivity generated by markets and technology.

This new thinking is also emerging in the debate over artificial intelligence and Universal Basic Income. For years, UBI was largely associated with the political left. But AI is reshaping that conversation. Increasingly, business leaders who are otherwise strongly pro-market are openly discussing the possibility that automation could fundamentally alter labor markets.

Elon Musk has repeatedly warned that AI and robotics could eliminate large categories of work. Years ago, Musk suggested that universal basic income would eventually become necessary because robots would perform many repetitive jobs. More recently, Musk has gone even further, discussing the concept of “universal high income,” arguing that AI-driven abundance could dramatically lower costs and increase prosperity.

Whether one agrees with Musk’s conclusions or not, the significance lies in who is making the argument. Musk is hardly an anti-capitalist. He is perhaps the most iconic entrepreneur of the modern era. Yet even he appears to recognize that an economy driven by superhuman AI productivity may require new ways of distributing purchasing power and opportunity.

That same conversation is unfolding across Silicon Valley.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has discussed concepts ranging from UBI to broader public ownership of AI-generated wealth. According to recent reporting, discussions in AI circles increasingly include public wealth funds, efficiency dividends, and new ways to ensure ordinary citizens benefit from AI-driven productivity growth.

Meanwhile, ALL-IN podcast host and angel investor Jason Calacanis has repeatedly discussed the importance of entrepreneurship, startup ownership, and broad-based participation in innovation as a way to preserve social stability and opportunity in the AI era. While not always explicitly endorsing UBI, voices like Calacanis increasingly acknowledge that technological disruption requires mechanisms that help people transition, participate, and maintain economic dignity.

Even Mark Zuckerberg has hinted at similar themes over the years, including discussions around universal basic income and the social implications of automation. Zuckerberg’s philanthropic and policy discussions have often centered on how technology can increase human potential while reducing inequality of opportunity.

Critics on both the left and right often misunderstand what is happening here.

The progressive left sometimes dismisses these ideas as attempts by billionaires to “save capitalism.” But that criticism accidentally reveals the point. Many Libercareans do, in fact, want to save capitalism — because they believe free markets remain the greatest engine of innovation and prosperity in human history. They simply recognize that capitalism cannot remain politically sustainable if too many citizens feel permanently excluded from its rewards.

On the other hand, some traditional conservatives recoil at ideas like UBI or government-seeded investment accounts because they sound too interventionist. But Libercareans would argue that the real threat to free markets is not limited intervention; it is widespread disillusionment with capitalism itself.

History supports this concern.

When societies experience prolonged inequality, declining mobility, and economic anxiety, people often turn toward authoritarianism, protectionism, or anti-market populism. The danger is not merely economic stagnation. It is political instability and cultural fragmentation.

The rise of anti-capitalist sentiment among younger Americans is a warning sign. Many young people do not oppose markets because they hate freedom. They oppose markets because they feel locked out of ownership. Housing is expensive. Student debt is crushing. Asset inflation benefits those who already own stocks and real estate. Meanwhile, AI threatens to widen the gap even further by concentrating wealth among those who control capital and algorithms.

The Libercarean answer is neither socialism nor laissez-faire indifference. It is broader ownership.

This philosophy recognizes a basic truth: capitalism works best when citizens have capital.

That might mean stock ownership accounts for children. It might mean sovereign wealth-style AI dividend funds. It might mean wage subsidies, portable benefits, or targeted forms of basic income during periods of technological disruption. The exact policies matter less than the underlying principle: preserving a dynamic market economy by ensuring ordinary people can meaningfully participate in it.

Importantly, Libercareans also reject the increasingly common cultural narrative that capitalism itself is inherently oppressive.

Markets are not perfect. But markets have generated extraordinary human flourishing. Capitalism has dramatically reduced global poverty, increased life expectancy, accelerated innovation, and expanded access to goods and services that previous generations could scarcely imagine. Smartphones, antibiotics, instant global communication, modern logistics, cloud computing, and AI itself all emerged from market-driven systems.

Attempts to suppress capitalism often produce the opposite of their intended effect. Overregulation can stifle innovation. Excessive bureaucracy can entrench incumbents. Anti-business rhetoric can discourage investment and entrepreneurship. Economies that punish risk-taking tend to generate less growth, less mobility, and ultimately fewer opportunities for the very people policymakers claim to help.

The Libercarean movement is attempting to chart a different path.

Rather than attacking wealth creation, it seeks to expand it. Rather than demonizing entrepreneurs, it asks how entrepreneurship can benefit more people. Rather than replacing markets, it aims to strengthen public buy-in for them.

In many ways, this movement may represent an evolution of American capitalism itself.

The industrial era produced labor unions and New Deal liberalism. The globalization era produced deregulation and free trade orthodoxy. The AI era may produce something new: a hybrid philosophy that fiercely defends innovation and free enterprise while also embracing mechanisms to spread ownership, resilience, and opportunity more broadly.

The political labels for this movement remain unclear. Some participants would reject the term “Libercarean” entirely. Others may view these ideas as pragmatic rather than ideological. But the pattern is becoming increasingly visible.

The entrepreneurs building the future are also beginning to ask how society survives it.

That question may define the next generation of economic thought.

And perhaps that is the true rise of the Libercareans: not a rejection of capitalism, but an attempt to preserve it by making more Americans owners, stakeholders, and participants in the prosperity it creates.

Wealth inequality has accelerated with the rise of artificial intelligence, as high-skill workers and capital owners capture outsized gains while many others face disruption in traditional jobs. National debt has ballooned past 100% of GDP, saddling future generations with interest payments that crowd out productive investment. At the same time, a cultural and political war on capitalism increasingly portrays markets themselves as the enemy, despite their unparalleled track record of lifting billions out of poverty around the globe.

April 26, 2026

By any traditional political label, Elon Musk doesn’t fit neatly into a box. He’s been called a libertarian, a technocrat, a capitalist maximalist, and, more recently, something harder to define. But as the idea of a “Libercarean” philosophy gains traction, a hybrid vision that blends free markets and individual liberty with a minimal but meaningful social safety net, Musk’s recent comments about AI-driven “universal high income” raise an intriguing question:

Is Elon Musk, intentionally or not, becoming the face of a Libercarean future?

The AI Economy and “Universal High Income”

Musk has increasingly argued that artificial intelligence will fundamentally reshape the economy—not gradually, but dramatically. In recent interviews and public statements, he has suggested that AI and robotics could make traditional employment optional and render scarcity largely obsolete.

More specifically, Musk has predicted the emergence of what he calls “universal high income”—a system where abundance generated by automation eliminates poverty and reduces the need for conventional wages.

This idea is not identical to traditional Universal Basic Income (UBI), but it clearly lives in the same conceptual neighborhood. Rather than redistributing a fixed pie, Musk envisions a world where the pie grows so large that everyone can receive a meaningful share without heavy-handed economic intervention.

For Libercarean thinkers, this distinction matters. The goal is not to expand bureaucracy, but to ensure a baseline of human dignity and economic security while preserving incentives, innovation, and freedom. Musk’s framing, abundance first, redistribution second, aligns surprisingly well with that ethos.

A History of Supporting Basic Income Concepts

Musk’s current statements are not a sudden pivot. For years, he has acknowledged that some form of income guarantee may be necessary in an AI-dominated economy. He has stated that if machines replace most human labor, “universal basic income will be necessary over time.”

Importantly, Musk does not present UBI as an ideological preference—it is, in his view, a pragmatic response to technological disruption. This framing again mirrors the Libercarean mindset: social support should exist not as an end in itself, but as a targeted solution to systemic challenges.

In that sense, Musk’s position avoids both extremes:

He does not call for expansive welfare states detached from productivity.  Nor does he insist that markets alone can solve displacement caused by exponential automation. Instead, he implicitly argues for a minimal floor beneath an otherwise free system, arguably the core of Libercarean thinking.

Free Markets, Innovation, and Capitalism at Scale

If Musk has flirted with income guarantees, he has also built his career as one of the most aggressive champions of markets and entrepreneurship in modern history.  Through companies like Tesla and SpaceX, Musk has consistently emphasized:

Private-sector innovation over government-led development

Competitive markets as engines of progress

Long-term investment in transformative technologies

Even when benefiting from government contracts or subsidies, Musk’s broader philosophy has leaned toward market-driven solutions to societal problems, from electric vehicles to space exploration. This is a key pillar of Libercareanism: markets should do as much as possible, because they are generally more efficient, adaptive, and innovative than centralized systems. Musk doesn’t just believe this, he has operationalized it at scale.

Free Speech and Individual Rights

Musk’s advocacy for individual liberty is perhaps most visible in his approach to speech. When he acquired Twitter (now X), he framed the move in explicitly philosophical terms, stating that “free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy.” He has also described himself as a “free speech absolutist,” and positioned the platform as a “digital town square” where ideas should compete openly.

From a Libercarean perspective, this emphasis on expression aligns closely with the belief that:

• Individual rights should be protected as a default
• Open discourse is essential to both markets and democracy
• Centralized control over speech should be minimized

That said, Musk’s record is not without contradictions. Critics have pointed to instances where content moderation decisions appeared inconsistent with absolutist principles. This tension highlights an important reality: applying libertarian ideals in complex systems is harder than articulating them.

The Libercarean Alignment

So where does Musk ultimately land? The Libercarean framework rests on three core ideas:

• Maximize individual freedom
• Rely on markets wherever possible
• Guarantee a minimal level of care or security for all

Musk’s worldview increasingly checks all three boxes:

Freedom: Strong rhetorical (and operational) support for free speech

Markets: A career built on private innovation and competition

Care: Growing acknowledgment that AI may require income guarantees

What makes Musk particularly interesting is that he arrives at this synthesis not through political theory, but through engineering logic. If AI creates abundance and displaces labor, then some mechanism must ensure stability. If innovation drives prosperity, markets must remain free. If society is to function, individuals must retain agency. That is not ideological purity, it is systems thinking.

Cover Boy… or Convenient Example?

Calling Musk the “cover boy” of the Libercarean movement may be premature, and perhaps misleading. He is not a consistent philosopher. His positions evolve. His actions sometimes contradict his rhetoric.

But as a case study, Musk is hard to ignore.

He represents a growing recognition—especially among technologists—that the old binary between “free markets” and “social safety nets” may be outdated in an age of AI-driven abundance.

Final Thought

If Libercareanism is about designing a society where people are free, markets are dynamic, and no one is left behind, then Elon Musk is not its founder or its final form.

But he may be its most visible prototype.

And like all prototypes, he is imperfect—yet undeniably pointing toward something new.

Photo creator: Joyce N. Boghosian | Credit: White House

Under this initiative, every eligible child born after January 1, 2025, receives an investment account seeded with $1,000, invested in the U.S. stock market.

As Invest America puts it, “The goal is simple: to give every young American a real financial foundation for education, homeownership, retirement, and lifelong opportunity.” Rather than replacing markets or distorting incentives, the program invites more Americans into the market itself—early, universally, and transparently.

This is a textbook example of what libercareans describe as Market-Protecting Equity Reinforcing Initiatives (MPERIs). MPERIs redistribute opportunity without dismantling market dynamics. They work with capitalism, not against it, ensuring that prosperity is more widely shared while preserving innovation, competition, and individual choice. By giving every child a stake in economic growth, programs like Invest America reinforce public trust in the system and strengthen long-term social cohesion.

Gerstner’s achievement lies not only in policy design, but in coalition-building. Invest America successfully bridged ideological divides, uniting advocates of free enterprise with those concerned about inequality and mobility. The result is a program that feels neither punitive nor paternalistic—just profoundly American in its faith that ownership changes outcomes.

This year’s award also recognizes notable runners-up who contributed meaningfully to this effort. Michael Dell is honored for both his advocacy around the Trump Accounts and his extraordinary $6.5 billion donation to support accounts for children nationwide—an act of private generosity aligned with public purpose. Senator Ted Cruz is recognized for his work promoting the Trump Accounts alongside school choice, advancing a vision of opportunity rooted in family empowerment, pluralism, and market-based solutions.

Together, these efforts point toward a future where equity and freedom are not opposing forces, but reinforcing ones. In honoring Brad Gerstner as Libercarean Man of the Year, the award celebrates a model of reform that expands care without shrinking liberty—and proves that the most durable social policies are those that invite everyone to own a piece of the system they are asked to believe in.

In a nutshell:

In the emerging era of artificial intelligence, rapid productivity gains risk concentrating wealth among capital owners and AI developers, widening inequality and threatening social stability. Effective wealth redistribution is therefore essential. However, redistribution must preserve the dynamism of free markets rather than undermine them.

Market-Protecting Equity Reinforcing Initiatives (MPERIs) achieve this balance. Programs like Invest America—which provide citizens with diversified equity stakes in domestic enterprises—and universal basic income (UBI) funded through broad-based mechanisms distribute economic upside without distorting incentives or eroding property rights.

MPERIs reinforce faith in capitalism while mitigating its excesses. They are thus not merely desirable but M-PERItive: mandatory for sustaining both equitable outcomes and vibrant markets in an AI-driven economy.

More Diffusely:
In the AI era, productivity surges from automation and machine learning could boost global GDP by 14% by 2030, per McKinsey estimates, but primarily benefit capital owners like tech giants (e.g., Google, OpenAI) and AI developers. This concentration risks exacerbating inequality: the top 1% might capture most gains, leaving workers displaced by AI in sectors like manufacturing or customer service facing wage stagnation or unemployment. Social stability could falter, as seen historically in industrial revolutions leading to unrest.

Wealth redistribution becomes crucial to counter this. However, poorly designed policies, like heavy progressive taxes or nationalization, can stifle innovation by reducing incentives for risk-taking and investment—key to free markets, where voluntary exchanges drive efficiency and progress.

Enter Market-Protecting Equity Reinforcing Initiatives (MPERIs): policies that redistribute wealth while safeguarding market dynamics. MPERIs build on capitalist principles, ensuring participants share in prosperity, thus bolstering public trust in the system. A prime example is “Invest America,” a new program that gives every eligible U.S. child an investment account they can grow over time. Each child born after January 1, 2025 will have their account seeded with $1,000, and as the invest America site explains “The goal is simple: to give every young American a real financial foundation for education, homeownership, retirement, and lifelong opportunity.”

Another MPERI is Universal Basic Income (UBI). Universal Basic Income refers to a process by which all citizens would receive income regularly and unconditionally. Trials in Stockton, California, showed UBI recipients used funds for essentials, boosting local economies without reducing work effort—employment rose slightly. In an AI context, UBI cushions job losses, while preserving entrepreneurial drive.

MPERIs mitigate capitalism’s excesses and by reinforcing faith in markets—through shared stakes—they prevent backlash like anti-tech regulations that could hamper AI innovation. Ultimately, MPERIs are “M-PERItive” for AI economies. Without them, inequality could spark populism or stagnation; with them, societies sustain vibrant, inclusive markets. Implementing requires careful design: transparent funds, minimal bureaucracy, and phased rollouts to monitor impacts.

As conversations about Universal Basic Income (UBI) continue to gain traction across the political spectrum, it’s becoming increasingly important to identify practical, attainable steps that can move the idea from theory to reality, without expanding government intrusion or compromising economic freedom. One such step, grounded in the principles of the libercarean movement, is simple, fair, and immediately possible: redistributing the revenue the United States collects from tariffs directly to the people.

Tariffs: An Overlooked Source of Public Wealth

Each year, the federal government collects substantial revenue from tariffs, taxes paid when foreign goods enter the U.S. market. This year tariff revenue is expected to be around $300 billion in the United States. Rather than allowing this money to disappear into the vastness of the federal budget, there’s a compelling alternative:

Return it directly to the citizens who ultimately bear the cost.

Economists widely agree that consumers shoulder most of the burden of tariffs through higher prices. If the American people are effectively paying this money in the form of increased costs, then it is only logical—and morally consistent with libercarean values—that the revenue be given back to them.

What Would This Look Like?

If the U.S. government collects $300 billion per year in tariffs, and we were to distribute that amount equally to all adult American citizens, the math is straightforward:

• Roughly 250 million adults live in the United States.
• $300 billion divided among them equals $1,200 per adult per year.
• That works out to $100 a month.

While $100 per month may not be enough to change a person’s life outright, it is enough to matter. More importantly, it demonstrates the viability and fairness of a UBI-style redistribution model that does not rely on raising taxes, growing bureaucracy, or creating dependency.

A Proof of Concept for a Larger UBI

Libercareanism promotes a society that provides a basic level of care while preserving maximum individual freedom and minimal market interference. Using tariff revenue as a direct, unconditional cash dividend checks all of those boxes:

• No new taxes. This is redistribution of existing government income.
• No expansion of government control. Funds flow directly to individuals, not through complex programs.
• No distortion of markets. Individuals—not bureaucrats—decide how to use the money.
• High transparency. The revenue collected is public and easily audited.
• Universal access. Every adult citizen receives their share, free from stigma or administrative hurdles.

Most importantly, this approach serves as a scalable prototype. If the public sees the benefits of receiving a modest monthly dividend funded by tariff income, it becomes far easier to make the case for a larger UBI someday, potentially funded by broader sovereign wealth strategies, resource royalties, carbon fees, monetary dividends, or other non-intrusive revenue streams.

Why This Fits the Libercarean Vision

Libercareanism aims to bridge the gap between those who demand a stronger social safety net and those who champion economic freedom and personal responsibility. Tariff-funded monthly dividends offer:

• A social support mechanism acceptable to the left.
• A market-respecting, liberty-preserving approach acceptable to the right.
• A stable, predictable benefit acceptable to everyone.

This is not about creating a cradle-to-grave welfare system. It’s about returning public wealth to the public—and proving that UBI can be done in a way that enriches individuals without empowering government.

A Small Check That Opens the Door to Big Change

In many ways, the United States already practices forms of limited universal dividends, like Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend. Tariff redistribution could become the next example, one visible at the national level.

A $100 monthly payment isn’t a full UBI, but it is a meaningful first step, a policy that proves the concept and lays the groundwork for broader reforms aligned with libercarean principles.

If we believe that resources collected through public means should benefit the public, then tariff-funded UBI is not just a good idea, it’s the most logical place to start.

At a time when political divisions feel sharper than ever, the search for practical, unifying ideas has become urgent. Libercareanism, an emerging framework that seeks to “provide a basic level of care while minimizing the impact on free markets and individual rights”, offers a compelling bridge between the priorities of the left and the right.

At its core, Libercareanism proposes that society provide a basic level of support for all citizens, but that such support should be delivered in ways that respect individual autonomy and avoid heavy-handed government control. Instead of expanding bureaucracy, it encourages innovations like universal basic income and citizen dividends funded by sovereign wealth returns.

For those on the left, Libercareanism upholds the commitment to providing a level of support for all citizens, reducing economic inequities, and ensuring all citizens benefit from the nation’s economic growth. For those on the right, it preserves personal choice, limits government intrusion, and leverages private enterprise and civic responsibility rather than relying solely on state systems.

Perhaps most importantly, Libercareanism reframes the debate. It shifts focus from “big government vs. no government” toward a pragmatic question: How can we support human well-being while preserving liberty? In this way, it offers a shared starting point for coalition-building across ideological lines.

In an era that desperately needs ideas capable of bridging divides, Libercareanism may not only represent a policy direction, but a philosophy of cooperation, innovation, and mutual respect. As more citizens search for alternatives to polarized politics, this blended approach could be the common ground many have been waiting for.