Innovation Accounts should do for the potential AI job wipeout what Trump Accounts did for children

America hosts most of the world’s leading AI companies, but plenty of people feel shut out from the money those companies are making. The piece starts there: tech-focused hedge funds were up 27% on average in the first half of 2026, and the Nasdaq-100 rose about 20%. Those are very nice numbers if you own them. If you don’t, AI just looks like another machine for making the rich richer.

The fix on offer is “Innovation Accounts,” a cousin of Trump Accounts. The basic idea is blunt: seed adults with money invested in a technology-stock index, so they get a direct claim on the gains from American AI and broader tech growth. The author argues that public ownership stakes in AI companies, floated by both President Trump and progressive Democrats, are the wrong route. Governments, the argument goes, are lousy stock pickers. Individuals should own the upside instead.

The math is the sales pitch. According to the piece, $1,000 put into the Nasdaq-100 a decade ago would now be worth $5,727 more, with the index returning 21% annually over that stretch. Seed an account with $5,000 and the gains would be $28,635. Trump Accounts already exist under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, giving children born from 2025 through 2028 a $1,000 government-funded stake in the stock market. Alaska’s Permanent Fund is the other precedent: it invests oil wealth and pays out an annual dividend to nearly every resident.

The political problem is cost, and the article doesn’t dodge it. Opening $1,000 accounts for every American over 18 when Trump accounts end would run about $270 billion. Limiting the program to households under $500,000 in wealth, which the piece says would cover about 70% of Americans, drops the cost to $190 billion. Another option is to make it targeted, using triggers tied to unemployment in specific sectors, income level, or geography so the money goes first to workers AI hits hardest.

There is also a smaller, cleaner version: a $5 billion pilot that could seed 1 million accounts at $5,000 each, with philanthropy stepping in before Congress does anything useful. The author’s larger point is that Americans are already exposed to AI’s electricity costs and job disruption, while only 58% of adults own stock. If AI is going to reshape the economy, more people should have a financial claim on it, not just a bill for the mess.