Free money? Majority of Millennials now favor universal basic income, poll finds

Could universal basic income soon become a reality? Click through the gallery for a roundup of robots who are taking over jobs. Could universal basic income soon become a reality? Click through the gallery for a roundup of robots who are taking over jobs. Photo: Hans Neleman/Getty Images Photo: Hans Neleman/Getty Images Image 1 of / 19 Caption Close Free money? Majority of Millennials now favor universal basic income, poll finds 1 / 19 Back to Gallery

The idea of providing a universal basic income to people who have lost their jobs to new technologies is now popular with nearly half of Americans and more than half of Millennials, a Gallup poll published this week found.

Robots have started doing everything from vacuuming our homes to making our coffee (and collecting our data all the while), so perhaps it's not surprising that the notion of guaranteeing a safety net to people pushed out of the workforce by increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence is also growing in popularity.

Support is particularly high among those ages 18 to 35; 54 percent of people surveyed in that age group say they'd support a universal basic income.

People of retirement age are much more hostile to the idea. Only 38 percent of Americans 66 and older say they'd support such a program.

The poll surveyed 3,297 adults from Sept. 15 to Oct. 10 2017. The majority of those surveyed — 73 percent — said they expect artificial intelligence to eliminate more jobs than it will create in the years to come.

The idea, popular among many in Silicon Valley, was once seen as an impossible sell by many but has become increasingly alluring as automation threatens to make more and more jobs obsolete. One much-publicized 2013 Oxford University study estimated that as many as 47 percent of jobs in the US are at a high risk of being computerized or automated in the next couple decades.

Another estimate by the private sector think-tank McKinsey Global Institute predicts that one-fifth of the world's workforce will be rendered obsolete as technology advances.

Among those in favor of a universal basic income, most (80 percent) want the companies responsible for developing new, job-eliminating technologies to pay for it. Funding it through higher taxes on individuals is, not shockingly, considerably less popular.

Various groups are putting the idea to the test around the country. Alaska has had a version of UBI since 1982, distributing a share of the proceeds from Alaskan oil and mineral leases to every resident in the state (a couple thousand dollars per person in recent years). A study of the fund has found it does not reduce full-time work force participation and actually has corresponded with an increase in the number of Alaskans taking on part-time jobs, possibly because the extra income has stimulated the state's service industry.

Another universal basic income pilot launched a lot closer to the Bay this winter, in Stockton, Calif. Championed by Stockton's 27-year-old mayor, Michael Tubbs, the program will supplement the incomes of a small group of low-income Stockton families with a no-strings-attached $500 a month for a 12 to 18 month period.

And Oakland's YCombinator Research is looking to expand its UBI trials after a pilot project in which it gave six people in Oakland $1,500 a month.

"If technology eliminates jobs or jobs continue to become less secure, an increasing number of people will be unable to make ends meet with earnings from employment," Elizabeth Rhodes, Y-Combinator's UBI research director told Quartz in 2016. "Basic income is one way to ensure that people are able to meet their basic needs."

Filipa Ioannou is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at fioannou@sfchronicle.com and follow her on Twitter