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If AI replaces workers, should it also pay taxes?

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Re: If AI replaces workers, should it also pay taxes?

#4
Depends on whether they intend to let all of these out of work people who were unlucky enough to be born as a worker starve to death really. They are going to have to find a way to give people a life even if there are no jobs or the paperclip creation doesn't have any buyers. Anyone proposing to just leave a decent percentage of the country to just die is going to face stiff opposition.

Re: If AI replaces workers, should it also pay taxes?

#5
post #2

No obviously not. Lots of machines replace workers. Why would taking scarce resources away from productive businesses and allocating to unproductive things be good for anyone other than government bureaucrats?

If full AGI dreams are achieved and 80% of jobs disappear, leading to mass unemployment, then we need to do something to support the huge numbers of people that no longer have any income. Taxes to support a UBI program seem one solution. Or maybe the labor market can shift to find opportunities for humans that AI can't replace and we'd avoid the mass unemployment.

But feels like we're a long way from that right now.

Re: If AI replaces workers, should it also pay taxes?

#6
post #2

No obviously not. Lots of machines replace workers. Why would taking scarce resources away from productive businesses and allocating to unproductive things be good for anyone other than government bureaucrats?

Infrastructure is not unproductive, even machines need roads. I don't think self-driving vehicles should be exempt from road tax.

Re: If AI replaces workers, should it also pay taxes?

#8
post #6
post #2

No obviously not. Lots of machines replace workers. Why would taking scarce resources away from productive businesses and allocating to unproductive things be good for anyone other than government bureaucrats?

Infrastructure is not unproductive, even machines need roads. I don't think self-driving vehicles should be exempt from road tax.

Roads should be (and are in many places) paid for with fuel excise taxes only. The more you drive, the more you pay.

Re: If AI replaces workers, should it also pay taxes?

#9
post #2

No obviously not. Lots of machines replace workers. Why would taking scarce resources away from productive businesses and allocating to unproductive things be good for anyone other than government bureaucrats?

I mean this is how all welfare works, isn't it? If as a society we think it's important to reallocate some resources so that people can get food in bread lines, we generally do that.

Re: If AI replaces workers, should it also pay taxes?

#10
post #2

No obviously not. Lots of machines replace workers. Why would taking scarce resources away from productive businesses and allocating to unproductive things be good for anyone other than government bureaucrats?

Unproductive things like building roads, the electrical grid, water lines, schools, etc?
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