bobcat
Well-known Member
- Location
- Northern Calif
Companies have been benefitting from automation for years by replacing humans with machines. Humans who are on the payroll pay taxes at the end of the year and that's what the government collects. Since machines and robots don't pay taxes, there has been a widening gap between output and government revenue, and that gap will be growing as more robots will be utilized in production of goods.
The proposal is a robot tax to offset the loss of revenue. However, the problems are immense. First of all, what constitutes a robot? (An arm, a rotating disk, an AI driven cart or forklift, or a thousand other configurations). Then, how do you know how many "robots" a company is using at any time, and what if they build their own? Do you tax actuators, circuits, servo-motors, or what? Also, what about all the machinery that has been in operation for decades?
The way around it is to tax output instead of counting what one might think of as a robot. However, some of that output and supervision is being done by humans who are paying taxes on their income, and how does one arrive at exactly how much of the output is human related and how much is robot? If the entire output is taxed, then the government will be getting a pretty good windfall, but the other way of looking at it is that companies have been getting away from taxes on produced output for years by using robotic type labor, and the government has seen shrinking revenue as a result.
The bottom line is if nothing is done, government revenue will continue to shrink, and if output tax is implemented, companies that have been automated for years will suddenly be facing a major kick in the gut.
The proposal is a robot tax to offset the loss of revenue. However, the problems are immense. First of all, what constitutes a robot? (An arm, a rotating disk, an AI driven cart or forklift, or a thousand other configurations). Then, how do you know how many "robots" a company is using at any time, and what if they build their own? Do you tax actuators, circuits, servo-motors, or what? Also, what about all the machinery that has been in operation for decades?
The way around it is to tax output instead of counting what one might think of as a robot. However, some of that output and supervision is being done by humans who are paying taxes on their income, and how does one arrive at exactly how much of the output is human related and how much is robot? If the entire output is taxed, then the government will be getting a pretty good windfall, but the other way of looking at it is that companies have been getting away from taxes on produced output for years by using robotic type labor, and the government has seen shrinking revenue as a result.
The bottom line is if nothing is done, government revenue will continue to shrink, and if output tax is implemented, companies that have been automated for years will suddenly be facing a major kick in the gut.
robots? seriously? wth?
