I’ve often thought about the idea of paying automated, narrow-AI systems such as warehouse bots or factory robots a wage even though they’re not sentient or anything would help with many of the issues ahead of us with increased general automation. As employment goes down (less tax money) and unemployment (voluntary or otherwise) and therefore social welfare goes up, it creates a considerable strain. Paying automated systems a ‘wage’ which can then be taxed might help alleviate that. It wouldn’t be a wage, obviously, more like an ongoing fee for using such systems to be paid towards the cost of caring for humans. Bonus if that money actually goes into a big pot which helps reimburse people who suffer harm from automated systems. Might be a good stop-gap until our economy adjusts correctly, as tax revenue wouldn’t dip as far.
Obviously this is MASSIVE spitball territory, not an idea I’ve thought about seriously because I literally don’t have the time, but could be an interesting idea. First step would be to check if automation is actually resulting in employment going down, because not sure there’s evidence of that yet.
I’ve often thought about the idea of paying automated, narrow-AI systems such as warehouse bots or factory robots a wage even though they’re not sentient or anything would help with many of the issues ahead of us with increased general automation. As employment goes down (less tax money) and unemployment (voluntary or otherwise) and therefore social welfare goes up, it creates a considerable strain. Paying automated systems a ‘wage’ which can then be taxed might help alleviate that. It wouldn’t be a wage, obviously, more like an ongoing fee for using such systems to be paid towards the cost of caring for humans. Bonus if that money actually goes into a big pot which helps reimburse people who suffer harm from automated systems. Might be a good stop-gap until our economy adjusts correctly, as tax revenue wouldn’t dip as far.
Obviously this is MASSIVE spitball territory, not an idea I’ve thought about seriously because I literally don’t have the time, but could be an interesting idea. First step would be to check if automation is actually resulting in employment going down, because not sure there’s evidence of that yet.
Economists have thought a bit about automation taxes (which is essentially what you’re suggesting). See, e.g., this paper.
Awesome, thanks for the link! :)