Tax the Token, not the future

Let’s talk about the invisible currency quietly running your morning scroll while you sip that cappuccino.

Tokens.
Not the arcade kind – sadly – but the tiny packets of data AI systems use to read, process, and generate everything from emails to entire reports. Every prompt, every response, every automated “we regret to inform you” job rejection… powered by tokens. Millions. Billions. Flowing constantly.

And here’s the kicker: those tokens are replacing people.

Entry-level roles – the first rung that was already wobbling – are being quietly absorbed by AI. Admin work, junior analysis, customer support… gone or going. Meanwhile, young people – especially those labelled NEET (not in education, employment or training) – are left circling a system that has no doorway left to enter.

Not because they lack effort. Not because they lack talent.
Because we’ve built an economy that values efficiency over humanity.

Now here’s a thought, Cappuccino Club style:
If AI runs on tokens, why aren’t we taxing them?

A small levy on AI usage – on those endless streams of tokens flowing through systems—could fund something far more valuable than another productivity boost. It could fund people.

Care roles. Community work. Mental health support. Environmental restoration. The kind of work society desperately needs but the market shrugs at because it doesn’t scale neatly or spit out quarterly profits.

We don’t have a shortage of meaningful work.
We have a shortage of funding models that recognise it.

Instead, we’re stuck in a loop – automate the jobs, cut the costs, then wonder why a generation feels excluded from purpose, not just pay. It’s not just an employment crisis. It’s a belonging crisis.

Taxing tokens flips the script.

It says: if machines are doing more of the “productive” work, then a slice of that value funds the deeply human work – looking after each other, rebuilding communities, creating spaces where people matter more than metrics.

Less “how do we get young people into work?”
More “how do we build a society worth working in?”

Because here’s the quiet truth beneath all the noise:
We don’t need everyone in a job.
We need everyone to have a role, a place, and a reason to show up.

And that, my friend, is worth far more than a billion tokens.