You’re absolutely right. Unless tax policy catches up fast, stuff like the robots that replace fast food chefs is taking money out of the little guy’s wallet and right into the hands of the wealthiest business moguls who no longer have to pay human wages.
After getting even a page in, the core premise of the book seemed so obvious in retrospect, but hasn’t caught on as a possible solution: we need to fix the fact that algorithms and robots don’t pay income tax! Income tax disincentivizes human labor, thus effectively subsidizing robots! This needs to be fixed!
There are two possible solutions:
Left-wing approach: tax algorithmic labor at a similar or higher rate as human labor
Right-wing approach: repeal income tax! Make entitlement cuts to help fix the budget but also add back lost tax revenue by making so-called “Pigouvian” taxes on harmful activities like pollution.
Though my politics lean a bit more left, I think this is an area where republicans have the ideological advantage, as getting rid of income tax and standing up a new carbon tax is doable, Whereas in the dem’s solution, you need to somehow define what is labor-saving automation in the tax code, which seems really hard to define fairly due to the influence of special interests.
Though I voted for Obama and Biden, I would happily vote for DeSantis if he ran on repealing income tax and fixing the budget gap in other ways that don’t penalize human workers!
Many thanks for this, for your kindness in answering so thoghtfully and giving me food for thought too! I’m quite a lazy reader but I may actually spend money to buy the book you suggest (ok, let’s take the babystep of reading the summary as soon as possible first). If you still don’t want to give up on your left leanings, you may be interested in an older classic (if you haven’t already read it): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Transformation_(book)
The great takeaway for me from this book was that the ‘modern’ (from a historical perspective) perception of labor is a relatively recent development, plus that it’s an inherently political development (born out of legislation rather than as a product of the free market). My own politics (or scientopolitics let’s call them) are that politics and legislation should be above all, so I wouldn’t feel squeamish about political solutions (i know this positions has its own obvious pitfalls though).
You’re absolutely right. Unless tax policy catches up fast, stuff like the robots that replace fast food chefs is taking money out of the little guy’s wallet and right into the hands of the wealthiest business moguls who no longer have to pay human wages.
This fundamental issue is addressed very well in an excellent book you might love to check out, called Taxing Robots, by Prof. Xavier Oberson, a Swiss economist. Here’s the book on Amazon: https://a.co/d/eWjvuWE and here’s a summary: https://en.empowerment.foundation/amp/taxing-robots-by-xavier-oberson-professor-at-geneva-university-attorney-at-law-1
After getting even a page in, the core premise of the book seemed so obvious in retrospect, but hasn’t caught on as a possible solution: we need to fix the fact that algorithms and robots don’t pay income tax! Income tax disincentivizes human labor, thus effectively subsidizing robots! This needs to be fixed!
There are two possible solutions:
Left-wing approach: tax algorithmic labor at a similar or higher rate as human labor
Right-wing approach: repeal income tax! Make entitlement cuts to help fix the budget but also add back lost tax revenue by making so-called “Pigouvian” taxes on harmful activities like pollution.
Though my politics lean a bit more left, I think this is an area where republicans have the ideological advantage, as getting rid of income tax and standing up a new carbon tax is doable, Whereas in the dem’s solution, you need to somehow define what is labor-saving automation in the tax code, which seems really hard to define fairly due to the influence of special interests.
Though I voted for Obama and Biden, I would happily vote for DeSantis if he ran on repealing income tax and fixing the budget gap in other ways that don’t penalize human workers!
Dear Jon,
Many thanks for this, for your kindness in answering so thoghtfully and giving me food for thought too! I’m quite a lazy reader but I may actually spend money to buy the book you suggest (ok, let’s take the babystep of reading the summary as soon as possible first). If you still don’t want to give up on your left leanings, you may be interested in an older classic (if you haven’t already read it): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Transformation_(book)
The great takeaway for me from this book was that the ‘modern’ (from a historical perspective) perception of labor is a relatively recent development, plus that it’s an inherently political development (born out of legislation rather than as a product of the free market). My own politics (or scientopolitics let’s call them) are that politics and legislation should be above all, so I wouldn’t feel squeamish about political solutions (i know this positions has its own obvious pitfalls though).