We Built Their Fortunes. Now They Should Build Ours: A National UBI Funded by Industries We Made Possible
When you scroll through Amazon, search on Google, or drive past Nevada’s Thacker Pass lithium mine, you’re witnessing something remarkable: trillion-dollar industries built on the backs of American taxpayers. Yet while these corporations reap historic profits, working families across Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District—and nationwide—struggle to afford rent, groceries, and healthcare. It’s time we reclaim our investment through a national Universal Basic Income.
The math is simple, and the moral case is even simpler: If taxpayers funded the research, infrastructure, and subsidies that created entire industries, we deserve a dividend from their success.
The Internet: A $10 Trillion Taxpayer Gift to Tech Giants
Let’s start with the most obvious example. Google, Amazon, Facebook, and every tech company profiting from the digital economy owe their existence to ARPANET—the taxpayer-funded network developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency starting in 1958. The federal government spent decades and billions of dollars developing packet-switching technology, TCP/IP protocols, and the fundamental architecture of what became the internet.
Private companies didn’t take the risk. Taxpayers did. Yet when the internet was privatized in the 1990s, all those profits went to private shareholders. Today, tech companies are worth trillions, while the American families who funded their foundation see none of that return.
The same pattern repeats with COVID-19 vaccines. Operation Warp Speed invested over $18 billion in taxpayer money to develop vaccines that pharmaceutical companies now sell back to us at enormous profit. Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech wouldn’t exist in their current form without decades of publicly-funded research into mRNA technology, much of it conducted at the National Institutes of Health. Yet Americans pay some of the highest prescription drug prices in the world.
Nevada’s Lithium: Our Resources, Their Profits
Here in Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District, this story hits even closer to home. The Thacker Pass lithium mine in Humboldt County received a $2.26 billion federal loan—the largest federal investment in a lithium mine to date. This public investment will help extract lithium from what is the largest confirmed lithium resource in North America, supporting production for up to 800,000 electric vehicles annually.
But who benefits? General Motors owns 38% of the project. The U.S. Department of Energy recently took a 5% stake. Where’s the dividend for Nevada families whose tax dollars made this possible? Where’s the return for the communities that will live with the environmental impact?
The Corporate Welfare State
This isn’t just about tech and mining. Federal subsidies to corporations now total over $181 billion annually, according to the Cato Institute. Boeing has received nearly $16 billion in government subsidies over the past 25 years. Intel just received an additional $7.9 billion from the CHIPS Act. The fossil fuel industry receives billions in tax breaks and direct funding through the Department of Energy.
Across America, taxpayer money built the industries that now dominate our economy:
Agriculture: Farm subsidies have propped up agribusiness for nearly a century
Aerospace: Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and others built their empires on defense contracts
Semiconductors: The entire chip industry relies on CHIPS Act funding and decades of federal research
Renewable Energy: Solar, wind, and battery technology all emerged from government-funded research
Pharmaceuticals: Nearly every major drug traces back to NIH-funded basic research
Automotive: From bailouts to EV subsidies, Detroit runs on public support
The pattern is clear: socialize the risk and the investment, then privatize the profits. It’s socialism for corporations, brutal capitalism for working families.
A National UBI: Claiming Our Dividend
A Universal Basic Income would correct this imbalance. Here’s how it works: Industries that received substantial taxpayer funding—whether through direct subsidies, research grants, infrastructure investments, or favorable tax treatment—would pay into a national dividend fund. Every American adult would receive a monthly payment, no strings attached.
This isn’t radical. Alaska has done this since 1982 with the Permanent Fund Dividend, distributing oil revenues directly to residents. In 2024, each Alaskan received over $1,300. If Alaska can do it with oil, America can do it with the industries we built.
The benefits are transformative:
Economic security: Families could weather emergencies without falling into debt
Entrepreneurship: People could take risks, start businesses, and pursue education.
Worker power: A basic income floor means workers can say no to exploitative wages.
Rural revitalization: Money flows to communities where corporations abandoned
Reduced bureaucracy: No means-testing, no welfare stigma, just direct payments.
Stanford’s Basic Income Lab has tracked over 160 UBI pilots globally, finding consistent improvements in health, education, and financial stability, with minimal impact on employment.
My Commitment to Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District
If elected to represent Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District, I will work with anyone in Congress—Democrat, Republican, or Independent—to advance a national UBI funded by industries built with taxpayer money. This isn’t a partisan issue. It’s about fairness.
I’ll introduce legislation requiring companies that received over $1 billion in cumulative federal support to contribute a small percentage of annual revenues to a National Dividend Fund. I’ll push for technology companies to pay a “data dividend” since our personal information fuels their profits. I’ll advocate for resource extraction companies operating on public lands to share revenues with American families.
Nevada knows something about this. Our state was built on mining, on extracting wealth from the land. For too long, that wealth left our communities while we dealt with the consequences. The lithium boom offers a chance to do things differently—to ensure that when corporations profit from our resources and our tax dollars, Nevada families profit too.
The Moment Is Now
We’re at an inflection point. Automation and AI threaten millions of jobs. The cost of living spirals upward while wages stagnate. Climate change demands a rapid economic transition. Working families need a foundation of economic security to navigate these changes.
The wealth exists. America is the richest nation in history. The question is whether that wealth serves everyone or just those at the top. A national UBI funded by the industries we built answers that question clearly: We invested in you. Now invest in us.
This is about more than economics. It’s about dignity. It’s about recognizing that every American deserves a stake in the prosperity we collectively created. It’s about building an economy that works for working people, not just shareholders and CEOs.
When I knock on doors across Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District, I hear the same story: families working harder than ever but falling further behind. They’re tired of being told the economy is booming while their bank accounts say otherwise. They’re tired of seeing corporations get bailouts while they get bills.
A national UBI says: You matter. Your labor matters. Your family matters. And the country you helped build owes you more than empty promises.
If we built the internet, we deserve a share of its value. If we funded the vaccines, we deserve affordable healthcare. If our tax dollars subsidize corporations, we deserve dividends, not just debt
It’s time to make the economy work for everyone. It’s time for a national Universal Basic Income. And it’s time for Nevada to lead the way.
