RE: Universal Basic Income and Taxation of Robots
Sorry for the late reply!
Definitely you brought up another interesting topic. Well, one of the problems of automation resides on a decrease on taxes. Not every sector will be relying on the same way on robots, and also not only mundane and low skill level jobs will be replaced by them. This is why I brought up the taxation on robots, so that mainly the businesses strongly relying on them will be covering for the deficit in taxes.
I guess one of the end goals is to be as idle as possible, or at least focus on what we really care about to enjoy our life to the fullest.
Increasing VAT will have to be there as well, but this can be a struggle for many businesses which won't implement as much technology.
Thanks for the comment! Definitely more food for thought :)
Good point. I wasn't thinking too much about the decrease of taxes.
However CIT is tax from the business income - if the prices of products or services remain the same then theoretically inflow from this tax should go up. Maybe it should be a little higher than today. So the more profitable businesses will provide more. And maybe we could lower the taxes on humans? :)
And if the prices drop then people should have more money for other purchases (VAT or other transaction tax again)
Basic income could provide safety net for people loosing jobs due to automation - allow them to study new areas or just have more time for new ideas while giving them power to purchase the cheaper and cheaper products. It should come together with general decrease of required weekly working hours... along with increased productivity - to make up for working hours lost due to automation. (I have note in progress on that)
I'm afraid country that taxes robots and/or AI might be less competitive then others. That is still important on global markets. We would need global agreement on that... Possible but difficult.
Of course there will be AI/robots taking more and more white collar jobs. Medics, bankers and artists (composers, painters) as the jobs that support living of larger population will be slowly disappearing.
I'm just saying that instead taxing progress that is really hard to measure I would go into the direction of other taxes. I really feel that any move against the progress is counterproductive.
In my view the increase of VAT is universal and being equal on all products and services should not cause much struggle to businesses. Again I assume there will be basic income for their customers... The progress on one front will put pressure on others... If costs of transportation go down then we would push for lower food or clothing costs by comparison of their relative value - I believe we could balance things
No hurry, answer in free time. I have my idea about how to tax things in modern society and I'm working on that but it goes very very slow :)
I updated, corrected and published my concept regarding "general decrease of required weekly working hours" I mentioned in above reply